When the roads start drying up, Kambisa! will travel to a number of large Zambian cities (Lusaka, Kitwe, Chipata, Livingstone, Kasama, Mongu) and organise Poetry Slams in a number of public places, like markets and bus stations. Here, we will be inviting market women, bus boys and by-passers to join us on stage and have their say. The shows will be livelied up by well known MC's like DJ Ibuku and a number of popular local musicians.

The theme of Poetry Slam '08 is 'the MOUTH'. The mouth is one of the most subtle interfaces that one has under control in ones body: we speak with it, we eat with it, we sing with it etc. We will present five different workshops focusing on the mouth as a musical/speech interface in the way you can use everyday:
1) a capella singing
2) poetry
3) story telling
4) the mouth as a musical instrument
5) rap/ragga

The Poetry Slam will end with a competition in which anybody can participate. Remember you don't have to know how to write it for you to say it! Anyone is a poet. Say it how you like it, with deep phrases or direct hits, on rhythm or like a story, in English, chiNyanja or any language you prefer. If you want to participate in a binocular language, let us know and we will set up a translator for those who need one. Or you or your friend can just give a brief English summary yourself. No poem should take longer than 5 minutes. The best poets will win a prize and be included in the Kambisa!-book which will be published later that year. Additionally, we will get a film crew to come film the Poetry Slam so you can put your own video online for the entire world to see! (that is, if you're up for all that fame..)


Examples of other Poetry Slams:
on youtube.com you can see some examples of other Poetry Slams - just type 'poetry slam' in the searching field and hit "enter"! You'll find a lot of poets, varying from famous word artists like Lauryn Hill, Mos Def and Erykah Badu to unknown school girls and uprising ghetto boys trying to make their point. If you type 'House of hunger' you 'll find an example of a Zimbabwean Poetry Slam, if you type 'Def Poetry Jam' you'll find the famous American show featuring all the big stars, and if you type 'Amiri Baraka' you will find the old man explaining how rap came from poetry and why YOU should participate to create your own future!