Pankti, the poetry society of Ramjas College, in association with Airplane Poetry Movement, organised its first poetry slam in the campus recently. Pankti, which was established in August 2016, has organised four open mic events in the past.
“Pankti has been more like a family and not just a society from another DU college. In November, I flew to Delhi from Mumbai just so I could perform in their slam poetry event.
The vibes, warmth and willingness to promote new talent is what makes Pankti different from others,” said Aaryanshi Mohan, a contestant.
This was one of the first authentic poetry slams from the University of Delhi. They were started to popularise poetry as a performing art. In order to make this possible, rules were changed, which made the slams lose their traditional value. Keeping this in mind, Pankti decided to adhere to traditional slam rules. In such events, the judgment is passed by the audience. However, in India, they were being organised with a special panel of judges so far. Pankti decided to give the power of judgment back to the audience.
“We have, in the past, conducted an open mic session every month since our inception, but this time we experimented with the authentic slam style competition wherein we chose five random people from the audience as our judges,” explained Tanmay Sharma, founder.
The audience was taken by surprise and excited to be part of the event. “I wasn’t expecting to be judging people when I showed up.
The paticipants were good and it was hard not to give everybody full marks,” said Banpreet Shahi from Gargi College.
Considering that this was a new method of judgment for Delhi Poetry Circle, many people were hesitant and unsure about the success of this method. However, no one was disheartened. “I had a great experience; the judging scheme was a gutsy move that prioritised ideology over pragmatism. The Delhi circuit needs to adopt such a methodology too,” said an excited Shibani Das of Venkateshwar College.
The decision to stick to the traditional rules of slam poetry not only allowed the audience to get a chance to know the history better, but also made participation more fun and the environment friendlier.
“I’ve been to a few slams before and they almost always have a formal and competitive air to them. This one, however, was more fun and friendly,” said participant Srishti Kapil.
