Over the last sev­en weeks, young up­com­ing spo­ken word artistes be­tween the ages of five to 25 were en­gaged in on­line men­tor­ship ses­sions with prac­ti­tion­ers of the art­form. The pro­gramme host­ed by Project El­e­va­tion with­in the Ma­yaro Com­mu­ni­ty con­clud­ed with an on­line po­et­ry slam com­pe­ti­tion last Sat­ur­day. The young po­ets de­liv­ered four-minute com­po­si­tions ex­press­ing their opin­ions, thoughts, and con­cerns as it re­lates to Gen­der-Based Vi­o­lence in T&T.

The ren­di­tions were judged on ar­tic­u­la­tion, con­tent, pre­sen­ta­tion, use of voice, use of body and im­pact. Of the ten par­tic­i­pants who de­liv­ered their po­ems, all were ex­pert­ly writ­ten and de­liv­ered. How­ev­er, af­ter ex­ten­sive de­lib­er­a­tions, Dabria Bap­tiste, of Or­toire Vil­lage, Ma­yaro, was award­ed the first prize in the com­pe­ti­tion with her po­em ‘No Ba­sis’. Gabrielle Ab­dool of Radix Vil­lage, Ma­yaro, came in sec­ond place with a stel­lar per­for­mance with her po­em “Just Breathe” and in third place, Wendy Ann Dy­er with her ren­di­tion of ‘Hope’.

Alejandro Ramrattan placed second in the 5-9 category

Uni­com­er (Trinidad) Ltd leaped at the op­por­tu­ni­ty to spon­sor the prizes for this en­gage­ment, with a dis­tinct in­ter­est in the com­pe­ti­tion’s frame­work to ac­tive­ly en­gage young per­form­ers in the arts to build their ca­pac­i­ty to speak out against so­cial is­sues.

“The lev­el of skill and lan­guage used by the young po­ets were be­yond my ex­pec­ta­tions. These are the ini­tia­tives that will fos­ter crit­i­cal think­ing and fu­ture in­no­va­tors of forth­com­ing gen­er­a­tions,” said Sha­had Ali, Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer at Uni­com­er (Trinidad) Ltd.

Cul­tur­al Am­bas­sador and mul­ti-award-win­ning spo­ken word po­et, Za­kiya Gill, who serves as project co­or­di­na­tor of Project El­e­va­tion, ex­pressed her sin­cer­est thanks to all spon­sors that par­tic­i­pat­ed in the event.

“Our team must ex­press our sin­cer­est thanks to Uni­com­er (Trinidad) Ltd for play­ing an ac­tive role in our pro­gramme. We must al­so ex­tend our sin­cer­est thanks to Nar­i­va Ma­yaro Dis­trict Youth Coun­cil, Trinidad Youth Coun­cil, Ma­yaro Pos­i­tive, Ma Guaya Youth Foun­da­tion, I Be­lieve in Suc­cess Foun­da­tion as well as S and S Per­sads Su­per­mar­ket Co Ltd.”

Dwayne Paul Lares, who placed first in the 5-9 category and was adjudged Most Outstanding Student, is congratulated by the Project Elevation team

Men­tors of the pro­gramme al­so in­clud­ed Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy, Min­is­ter of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Sham­fa Cud­joe, Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Nyan Gab­sy-Dol­ly, Coun­cil­lors Renelle Kissoon and Wen­dell Perez, Cavelle Joe­sph-St Omer, Aneesa Paul from AP Coun­selling Ser­vices, Patrick Phillips and youth ad­vo­cate Ariel Saun­ders who made them­selves avail­able to speak with all the par­tic­i­pants vir­tu­al­ly.

They have both ex­pressed their will­ing­ness to sup­port Project El­e­va­tion and the Spo­ken Word Men­tor­ship Pro­gramme for the ben­e­fit of oth­er young ea­ger artistes in T&T.

Re­sults

Young Adults

1st Place- Dabria Bap­tiste

2nd Place- Gabrielle Ab­dool (Most Out­stand­ing Stu­dent)

3rd Place- Wendy Ann Dy­er

Most Out­stand­ing Stu­dent- Camelia Ram­dass

Age Cat­e­go­ry 5-9

(2 par­tic­i­pants)

1st Place - Dwayne- Paul Lares (Most Out­stand­ing Stu­dent)

2nd Place- Ale­jan­dro Ram­rat­tan

Peo­ple’s Choice

Damali Warn­er

People's Choice winner Damali Warner