Team Kavre bagged the top honours at the first ever National Poetry Slam held in the Capital on Saturday. The event—dubbed QC Awards 2016 and organised by the spoken word poetry collective Word Warriors—saw four teams from Kathmandu, Dhangadi, Pokhara and Kavre compete for the top honours during the finale held at the Rastriya Sabha Griha. Four other teams—Ilam, Lalitpur, Surkhet and Chitwan—had made it to the semi-finals held on Sep 2.

The event was part of a two-year project aimed at bringing young spoken word poets together at a common platform. Previously, in the build-up to the finals, the organisers visited several cities across the country and conducted workshops and local-level competitions.

The final eight teams first competed in their respective regions and were selected after winning regional slams held in each of the eight districts. The teams also went through a month-long mentorship and training with members from the Word Warriors before competing in the event. Each team consisted of four members who performed individually as well as in a group.

Speaking to the Post, the director of Quixote’s Cove, the organisers, Pranab Man Singh, said, “This is the first time that we have had the poets from various parts of country competing against each other. Even though Word Warriors has been around since 2010, it was operating only in the Capital but with this event we have tried to expand outside the valley. We conducted poetry workshops and local-level competitions in various cities in the country and the response there was phenomenal, which motivated us to organise this event.” 

The poets at the event slammed about various issues ranging from body shaming and corruption to the country’s flailing education system. One of the youngest poets in the competition Dinesh Joshi from Dhangadi spoke about the taboos regarding menstruation, while poet Rojina Chettri from Pokhara slammed about societal blowbacks caused by the culture of migrating as labourers. Other themes included familial love, unemployment and explorations of a range of human emotions.

The final event was judged by Nibha Pradhan, Sneha Pradhan, Subin Mulmi, Biplav Pratik and Sanket Shrestha. The initiative was further supported by the American embassy’s Book Bus programme, Danida, Write to Speak and the Danish Centre for Culture and Development (CKU).