Awarded the UNESCO City of Literature title in 2015, Nottingham has a thriving and ever-expanding poetry scene. That’s why it’s no surprise that Cara Thompson won the international Slamovision poetry competition last year with her poem Island Screams. Hosted at Metronome this December in collaboration with WRAP at NTU, we catch up with the poet all about the upcoming event…
It’s been compared to the spoken word version of Eurovision, but what actually is Slamovision?
Slamovision is something that was set up by the UNESCO Cities of Literature and is in collaboration with WRAP at the Nottingham Trent University. So, for those who don’t know, UNESCO has declared 43 Cities of Literature worldwide, and they are places that have a really strong literary heritage. One of which is Nottingham. So, the cities all came together to create their own Eurovision-style competition but based around the local poetry scene. Each year, every city that wants to be involved will nominate a poet and they will perform at this international poetry slam.
This year it’s actually being hosted at Nottingham’s Metronome…
I won last year on behalf of Nottingham with my poem, which was really exciting because it meant that we got to host this year. Whichever city wins almost becomes the centre of poetry for a while, so it’s a really amazing opportunity to be able to showcase Nottingham’s Creative Quarter and our poetry scene, which is so lively!
Like you said, an amazing opportunity for the city and for you personally.
In terms of my own personal journey, it’s massively boosted my confidence and really put me in a comfortable position when it comes to performing. And, like you say, for the city too. Lots of people aren’t even aware that Nottingham has this City of Literature title, and these kinds of events bring attention to something that Nottingham should be really proud of.
Every city that wants to be involved will nominate a poet and they will perform at this international poetry slam
What was your piece of poetry about last year?
My poem was a piece called Island Screams and it was inspired by the prompt of ‘where are you from’. So I explored my dream response to someone asking me that and really delved into my Caribbean heritage. Honestly, I was really stunned that the poem won because I didn’t think poets from across the world would understand what I was talking about as a black Caribbean British woman, but it did translate and that was a real lesson about what poetry is and what it can do. It is almost like a form of translation. We have already had some entries from other cities come through and they cover a variety of languages, themes and topics, but they all really touch you.
Who is going to be representing Nottingham in this year’s Slamovision?
We have an incredible representative, Abbey, who did a wicked poem all about tea. It’s about how tea has become the national identity drink in the UK, but she touches on all the routes of where tea really comes from and all its colonial connections with the Asian continent. That connection to other nations through history really works in this competition, which is all about international connections.
We have already had some entries from other cities come through and they cover a variety of languages, themes and topics, but they all really touch you
That sounds amazing. So, finally, what can people expect on the night?
We’re going kind of big with it. You’ll first be greeted by a creative marketplace of different Nottingham stalls, including Dizzy Ink, Nottingham Black Archives and Nonsuch Studios. All of these exemplify these different areas of Nottingham that are doing incredible work. Then the second section will be the slam in that Eurovision format, where you’ll hear the performances and each of the different cities will announce their scores to decide the winner. Finally, we’ll have a celebration with a poetry party open mic. So, it will be a very wholesome and really fun night!
Slamovision will take place at Metronome on Tuesday 6 December
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