Bandra Slam - a poetry performance contest

Caferati is organsing some of the literature events at the Celebrate Bandra fesstival this year. There are workshops and contests, amongst them, our own spin on a slam.

Contest description:

Hosted by Mocha Mojo. Organised by Caferati. Prizes courtesy Mocha Mojo.

* Theme for performers:

2 poems on Bandra, 2 on the environment, the theme of this year's festival. Performers can interpret these themes in any way they choose. The poems must be written by the performers. Each poem must take not more than two minutes to perform. Poems can be in English, Hindi or Marathi. Or Bambaiya.

* To sign up:

You must send in one poem, on either theme, to *editors at caferati dot com* with the subject line "Celebrate Bandra Poetry Slam."
Deadline: 18th 20th November, midnight.

If there are more than 15 contestants, Caferati's editors will use the submitted poem as a criteria for selecting the top 15.

The top 15 poets will be invited to the slam by email. They must respond to the invitation latest by 20th November, midnight.

* On the contest day.

- Poets must come prepared with four original poems, two on each of the themes.
- You must register with the organisers by 19.30
- There will be four rounds, by theme of poem. In each round, poets will be called up in random order, and will perform one poem each. They will have a time limit: not more than two minutes each. A buzzer or bell will sound at the end of two minutes. There will be NO time extensions allowed.
- As each performer ends, they will be rated by a jury. This jury will be three invited city poets (the experts), and three randomly selected members of the audience (whose role it will be to vote on behalf of the audience) who will change with each round.
- Poets will be judged on both the quality of the poetry and the performance.
- At the end of the round, we will take a break to tally scores. Performers and audience can get themselves refreshments.
- Scoring will be cumulative. (Those who survive each round will carry their points with them. Elimination in each round will be based on total scores up to that point.)
- The lowest scoring poets --- six in the first round, three each in subsequent rounds --- will be eliminated, and the next round will start.
- The top three at the end of four rounds will win prizes.

* Prizes (Vouchers from Mocha Mojo)

1st Prize Rs 3000
2nd Prize Rs 2000
3rd Prize Rs 1000

* Conditions

- The poems must be your own work. By entering the Slam, you are guaranteeing that this is true.
- Participants selected for the Slam can, on stage, read from a sheet of paper or electronic device or recite from memor.
- No costumes (and no nudity), no musical instruments, no visual aids
- Your poems and your performance remain your intellectual property. However, you give Celebrate Bandra, Fountainhead and Caferati permission to record your performance on audio or video or photographs and share them on their websites with correctly attributed copyright information.