Performance poets have blamed the lack of support for their art as the reason it has been overshadowed by other art forms such as film and music.
Poets who spoke to Zimbo Jam kept calling for more support from both government and the private sector in order for their suppressed art form to flourish.
“In my own circle, only a few people appreciate pure poetry. Some follow it when it’s in musical form like hip hop, we need more recognition and support” lamented one poet, Ruramayi Chiremba.
He further pointed out lack of grooming and performance space as some of the problems befalling performance poets.
“Just like any sector it needs more people who are willing to promote it from its grassroots. Book Cafe where we used to perform was closed and people running it could hardly meet operating costs. As poets we need a haven of ours and we don’t have that.”
Award-winning poet, Tendekai Tati has also called for the instilling of the poetry culture within the young generation in order to consolidate the form of art from an early stage.
“I believe everything needs to start from the roots. If poets are willing to seed into the younger generations beginning from primary school by making interactive approaches like conducting workshops and regular performances, providing some form of mentorship in the process, it might be enough to secure an audience base in the future. Poetry currently exists only as a craft but not as a culture. A culture is developed through being practiced by people to whom young people look up to,” said Tati.
Some like Itai Sekeremo have called on the country’s media platforms to play a leading role in extending the audience base for their form of art.
“Promoters need to invest much in poetry as a potential industry not to side-line it. Radio and TV need to give poetry a chance in their programming that will develop interest from viewers and listeners hence making our lovely poetry a giant art form,” he said.
Kudakwashe Murombedzi aka Da Voice, believes the power to grow and sustain the art form resides with the poets themselves who are supposed to embrace all forms of poetry in order to gain popularity.
“To improve the sector we have to venture into all categories of poetry for instance performance poetry, page poetry, slam poetry and poetic theatre,” he said.
Mutsa Diana Shiripinda, also known as Rae lyric has also supported Murombedzi saying performance poets need to be innovative and find ways of making their form of art profitable.
“Find creative and innovative ways to make it profitable. But I would like to point out to new poets that assuming you can live off poetry alone in the beginning will be a disastrous assumption,” she said.
