Hamilton Poetry Slam a resounding success
Everything from Buddha to Bowie to bicycles featured at the Poetry Slam at the Lido on Monday night.
Eleven poets were each assigned a five minute time slot to read or perform their poems.
Wintec student Kashka Tunstall organised the event and also acted as the MC. She didn’t expect such a huge response. “It was a shock… it kind of spilled out into this massive crowd.” She estimates around 80 people attended.
“I haven’t ever really seen big events happen in Hamilton to do with poetry although I know that a lot of people in Hamilton write poetry.”
This was the first of many slams. One will be held each month if it remains popular.
She raised awareness of the event through Facebook, a range of local and nation wide websites and by word of mouth.
Ms Tunstall’s methods were successful. Most of the poets were Hamilton based but poets also travelled to the event from Auckland and Tauranga.
She told the audience the story of a poet who had pulled out at the last minute on realising the slam wasn’t taking place in Hamilton, Ontario.
Wintec Media Arts head of school Margi Moore attended the event.
She was most impressed by the number and diversity of people who attended and how engaged they all were. A range of generations were represented.
She said she was not surprised by the good turnout as Hamilton is an ideal city for this sort of event especially considering its student population.
She was pleased that a student had taken it upon herself to organise the event.
Ms Tunstall has been selected as one of 10 finalists to compete in Poetry Idol on the 15th of May. Poetry Idol is part of the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival.
The next Hamilton Poetry Slam will happen at 6.30 at the Lido cinema foyer on Monday May 30th.
