- Poets are invited to submit an entry for 2023 Poetry Africa festival theme: Vote4Poetry: More Than Words. The poet is free to interpret the theme as broadly as possible but the poem must express the poet’s ideas related to matters such as human rights, justice and equality. The poem must demonstrate how the poet’s voice works towards strengthening South Africa’s Constitutional Democracy. We are looking for innovation, creativity and different integration of multimedia to engage with matters of human rights, justice, equality & democracy.
- A poem submitted for the competition can be in any of the official South African languages but it must have English subtitles. Poetry Africa is streamed globally and the use of English is for the purposes of being accessible to the festival’s global audiences.
- A poet may submit on only one entry for the competition.
- The poem must be submitted in a video format (MP4, AVI). Poem/video must be no more than 100MB.
- The video poem must not exceed 3 minutes in total. Entrants will be allowed a 10 second grace period. Failure to keep to the length prescribed, the poet might be disqualified.
- The poem submitted for the competition must be original and be the poet’s own work; and it should not have been submitted anywhere else (other digital slams/projects).
- The video must be original and not contain other people’s copyrighted material. In the event that the poet uses any other person’s content in the video (visuals or sound, etc) it is the onus of the poet to secure the rights of use for such content. The festival reserves the right to request proof thereof.
- Props, costumes and/or instruments are permissible in the presentation of poems.
- Poets may not do introductions to their poems.
- Poems that are shortlisted will be shared on the festival’s social media platforms.
- Entrants must be between the ages of 18-35
- The Top Ten entrants will be invited to perform at the Poetry Africa festival semi-final Slam Competition in Johannesburg on Friday 6 October 2023. Where necessary the Top Ten entrants will be provided with flights from a major airport in South Africa to Johannesburg, 2 night’s accommodation in Johannesburg, per diems and a performance fee.
- The Top Five poets will be invited to perform at the Poetry Africa festival in Durban on Saturday 14 October 2023. Where necessary the Top Five entrants will be provided with flights from a major airport in South Africa to Durban, 2 night’s accommodation in Durban, per diems and a performance fee.
- The winner will receive an overall fee of Twenty Thousand Rand.
- Entrants must be between the ages of 18-35
- Poets may submit their videos via WhatsApp to 071 420 5185.
- Poets must complete the entry form when sending their poems.
- Entries close on Friday 15th September at midnight
- The decisions of the panel of Jury will be final.