South African crowns himself in Brussels as the very first world champion of slam poetry (Brussels)
South African Xabiso Vili has crowned himself the very first slam poetry world champion in Kinepolis Brussels. Vili made the biggest impression in the final. Brussels Minister for the Image of Brussels Sven Gatz presented the prize to the brand new world champion.
Source: BELGA
A slam poetry match can be seen as a boxing match with words. The participants use poetry, but according to their own rules. They break through poetry as an elite art form and use their artistic freedom to tell a personal story.
In the past few days, 40 slammers from 37 countries competed against each other in Brussels during the first slam poetry world championship. The semifinals on Tuesday and Wednesday attracted a lot of filmed spectators, but the match was also followed online by no less than 30,000 viewers. 20 finalists were selected from the semi-finals who took a shot at the world title tonight. Among them is the Belgian Marie Darah, who is the reigning European champion.
In the final, the artists were given three minutes to surprise the jury with their performance and of course their love. The South Xabiso Vili, who in addition to being a slammer is also a writer, performer, activist, new media artist and producer, was the strongest and can call himself world champion of slam poetry for a year. EOB from Guinea came in second, but won the audience award, and Victorio Equihua from Mexico completes the podium.