THE DREADING Poetry Slam has crowned its winner for 2022 in its competitive poetry final.
After a year of monthly heats and a fierce battle for the top spot, the group named this year’s winner in the slam poetry grand final.
Winners of the year’s heats competed in three rounds of readings with judges chosen from the crowd scoring individual works.
Poet and author A.F. Harrold kicked off proceedings with an effusive performance of I Can’t Do Punk before eight contenders took to the microphone to perform original pieces.
The first poem of the night’s first round bemoaned the scourge of four-way traffic controls, followed by an amusingly rude character assassination of Paddington Bear.
These were quickly answered with a poem exploring wage inequality, focusing on Fat Cat Friday to tackle the idea that CEOs work harder for their money than average workers in a powerful piece.
Poems about the daily woes of a vampire and the experience of being socially outcast closed the first round of judging.
The second round kicked off with a poem tackling the perils of online dating apps, which ended amusingly with a limp microphone hanging out of the stand drawing laughter from the audience.
It also saw an impassioned piece celebrating the music of the late Terry Hall, including a gig in Bracknell, and his impact on the poet’s life as part of an interracial couple.
A poem exploring the resurgence of “frumpy chic” was a joyful celebration of tattiness and natural body shapes as desirable in a humorous challenge of beauty standards in modern society.
One of the final poems of the second round was an astonishing appraisal of modern struggles through the metaphor of people “gasping for air,” including the killing of George Floyd, the increasing levels of pollution and climate change, and domestic abuse.
With the scores totted up, contenders were whittled down to three finalists, Sarah Smith, Liz Teo, and Aishwarya Mahajan.
Before the final three performed their last submissions, members of the audience were invited to take part in impromptu poems of their own on the set theme of rivers, followed by A.F. Harrold’s performance of Bungalow.
Aishwarya performed a poem about a childhood friend which had a dark twist at its conclusion, and Sarah performed a touching piece exploring how a relationship changes as a result of dementia.
Finally, Liz closed the evening’s performances with a curse-laden lampoon of classical manners and etiquette.
A.F. Harrold said that the slam poetry events see attendees “bringing their best stuff, with a variety of voices, styles, and content.
“Some poems are funny, some political, some shouted, some whispered, and it went to some emotional places.”
Final scores were submitted and Sarah Smith was named the Dreading Poetry Grand Slam 2022 winner.
She said after the event: “I’m really delighted– it’s a great night, and one of the fun things about it is that it’s unpredictable.
“You don’t know what the other poets are gonna bring, and you don’t know what the judge says you’re gonna be.
“We have everything from a lady who I think was in her 70s to a lad who was 10, and all points in-between.”
Speaking about her choice of poetry to perform, she said that the diverse crowd meant: “You’ve got to go with integrity about things that you think will appeal as broadly as possible.
“But also something that really means something to you.”
She said that the scene in Reading is “really accessible— there’s a lot of accomplished poets out there, but whatever you want to bring, it’s accessible and I really like that.”
Ms Smith hasn’t always been a confident performer, however: “Six or seven years ago I wouldn’t have been able to do this.
“I had a lot of therapy, and I started writing and performing since then– I’ve got a lot to share, and I wasn’t able to do it.
Runner-up Liz Teo said: “I only started doing poetry during lockdown– it had been something that in the past I’d done occasionally.
“Then in the lockdown I had no other excuses, and actually Zoom did me a few favours.
“I ended up following some poets into Zoom groups, one in San Diego, one in Milan, but then I thought ‘this is ridiculous.'”
After seeking something closer to home, she joined the Dreading Slam events as they were just a few miles from her.
“I’d never performed before, so that was me starting, but I joined a workshop course run by Hampshire’s poet laureate.
“So I’m beginning to grow, but I’ve only ever performed here.”
Dreading Slam Poetry begins its 2023 open mic heats on Sunday, February 5, at the Rising Sun Arts Centre, and again on the first Sunday of each month.
For more information about Dreading Poetry Slam, visit their Facebook page.
