Saint John’s School wins Western SHS poetry slam

Though they knew about poetry and the general dynamics of it through English Literature lessons, the idea of a poetry slam was completely new to the students from four Senior High Schools in the Western Region who availed themselves for a workshop on the subject at the Regional Library on March 23.

This year’s World Poetry Day was the impetus for the day’s workshop.   After sessions that introduced them to the global as well as Ghanaian slam frontiers, the rules that guide slams and how to generate appreciable ideas as slammers, the students took a plunge into that exciting world of words on March 24.

There were three rounds of presentations from each school and  Saint John’s School came up tops to school receive GHC1000, a plaque and T-shirts  at the end of proceedings. Archbishop Porter Girl’s Secondary School placed second with Takoradi Senior High School and Fijai Senior High School in third and fourth positions respectively.

The Poetry Slam Competition for SHS in the Western Region came off through a collaboration between the Ehalakasa spoken word movement and the Goethe-Institut in partnership with the Ghana Library Board’s Western Regional Library and the Ghana Education Service (GES).

The slam contest for Senior High Schools is an annual thing the Ehalakasa  movement has been doing with the Goethe-Institut Library over the last six years to mark World Poetry Day.

 “The whole idea is to let students know what poetry slams are about and how they can join the ever-growing slam community when they leave school. We pitched the idea to the Goethe-Institut and it quickly bought into it.

“So  the Goethe-Institut  Library  gets in touch with the regional libraries and partner with them to bring  GES on board  to get the schools for us to work with,” said Sir Black, a leading member of Ehalakasa.

He was the main facilitator at the Western Region workshop with assistance from two Takoradi-based spoken word artistes: Matthew Mawuenyegah Komi Sabah (aka SabWay) and Marian Debrah (aka Poetra  Debrah).

“We have so far been to the Volta, Northern, Ashanti, Upper West and Western regions and also held sessions at the Goethe-Institut premises in Accra. Everyone involved realises it is a good venture as it is helping young people enhance their creative abilities,” Sir Black added.

The Goethe-Institut’s support for Ehalakasa for the Poetry Slam Competition for SHS in the Western Region formed part of the German cultural institute’s Moving Ghana Project which provides travel grants for artistes and cultural workers traveling within Africa for conferences, workshops and festivals.

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