Spoken word is a niche art form that is slowly going mainstream, aided in part by open mic nights, workshops and creative collaborations, finds Joanna Lobo
Rochelle D’silva takes the stage to a flurry of applause. She starts speaking, moving her hands spiritedly and using her eyes and voice to express emotion, jumping from happiness to lust to anger seamlessly. Behind her, a band strikes up a light melody, alternating between the sounds of a saxophone and the gentle rhythm of drums.
Rochelle D’silva at a spoken word event at in the city
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D’silva, 32, is a poet, and this five-minute piece titled Allowance was an example of spoken word. A form of poetry, spoken word is an oral art form that focuses on word play, sound structure, intonation and voice inflection; music can be an accompaniment too. “This can be compared to a ghazal or shairi as it is a form of oratory simulation that is intelligent and thought provoking,” says Sofia Ashraf, writer, rapper and content creator at Blush, Culture Machine’s digital channel.
Ray Iyer in a still from Dear Mental Health Ally
In Mumbai, the spoken word movement is at a nascent stage. D’silva, the founder of the poetry organisation, Words Tell Stories, has been conducting spoken word workshops in the city for the last two years. On August 20-21, she has organised an Intangibles Spoken Word Masterclass with two internationally renowned poets, Kyle Louw and Ikenna Onyegbula. On Friday, spoken word poet Ray Iyer, 27, and filmmaker Rohan Sabharwal, 37, released Rhyme with Reason — a spoken word and film collaboration. Elsewhere, Blush has released spoken word videos in the last year.
Kalki Koechlin in the video, The Printing Machine
“Poetry has become mainstream — you have 15 to 20 open mics and poetry slams conducted per month. But spoken word it still new — not everyone has a grasp of it and people are not used to writing for performance,” says D’silva.
Culture Machine’s spoken word video shot in Arunachal Pradesh
Making an impact
When Culture Machine produced actress Kalki Koechlin’s The Printing Machine — a scathing satirical against media and a morally numb culture — in January this year, it went viral. “Spoken word combines writing and poetry and talks about issues that matter. In essence, it is what art should become, something that fuels change. This lends itself to a lot of messaging that can be put out to people who wouldn’t have access to it,” says Ashraf.
Harnidh Kaur, 21, a Masters student of public policy, started doing spoken word poetry in 2012 when she was in Delhi and carried it to Mumbai. “It allows a lot more engagement with the audience as this poetry is equally about content as performance and about owning the stage,” she says. Kaur has performed spoken word with poetry platform Open Sky Slam, on radio as part of a show, and done beat poetry — poetry set to music.
Kaur considers her poetry to be political — influenced by what’s happening around her. She touches on subjects like identity, community and the political milieu. “In spoken word, the subject does matter. You need to be passionate about it,” she adds.
“Spoken word poetry has a lot of scope to bring about change in society,” says Iyer. Rhyme with Reason’s first film about mental health, is titled Dear Mental Health Ally. They’ve used lighting, sound effects and props like knives and darts. “We wanted to make it hard-hitting,” she adds. Future films will be about the beef ban, messed up relationships and body shaming.
Going mainstream
Kommune, started in January 2015 as a collective venture by Roshan Abbas, Gaurav Kapur and Ankur Tiwari, is a space for the creative community to convene and collaborate. Their Beat Poetry sessions invite poets to perform their work to original music by musicians like Sidd Coutto and Ankur Tiwari. “We give poetry a rhythm and bass. Poetry is about listening and getting lost in the words and the music takes that experience up a notch and makes it accessible to a larger audience,” says Tess Joseph, 37, director, Kommune, who performed a piece titled I’m Not A Woman Anymore.
Spoken word lends itself well to videos and as more spaces open their doors to poetry events, it is natural that it is finding popularity in the city. “In Mumbai, this is a young movement. These poets have grown up watching YouTube videos and listening to clips by other spoken word artistes and want to emulate them. We understand the form better,” adds Kaur.
Ahsraf, who has been invited to judge spoken word events in city colleges, has a word of caution. “Many of the pieces I hear border on pretentious and ephemeral. They just take a subject that’s popular and talk about it,” she says.
Iyer adds that people need to push themselves to bring out the performance aspect in poetry. She cites instances of ending up at events where it is just someone reading out a poem from paper or their phone. “Reciting poetry isn’t enough. Spoken word needs to have an impact and it should be performed and treated like that. We wanted to make our work easy to absorb and scalable and so, we used the medium of film,” says Iyer, adding, “Poetry has to sell.”
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