A poetry slam is a competition in which poets of all ages perform spoken word poetry. Poetry slams began in Chicago in 1984 with its first competition designed to move poetry recitals from academia to a popular audience when American poet Marc Smith began experimenting with existing open microphone venues for poetry readings by making them competitive. The performances at a poetry slam are judged by a panel of judges, typically five, and usually selected from the audience, or sometimes judged by audience response. The judges usually give each poem a score on a scale of 0–10. The highest and lowest scores are dropped and the middle three are kept. The highest score one can receive is 30 and the lowest is zero.
Spoken word is a performance art that is word-based. It is an oral art that focuses on the aesthetics of word play such as intonation and voice inflection. It is a "catchall" term that includes any kind of poetry recited aloud, including poetry readings, poetry slams, jazz poetry, and hip hop, and can include comedy routines and prose monologues. Although spoken word can include any kind of poetry read aloud, it is different from written poetry in that how it sounds is often one of the main components. Unlike written poetry it has less to do with physical on the page aesthetics and more to do with phonaesthetics, or the aesthetics of sound.
Mulago is a hill in north-central Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. The hill rises 4,134 feet (1,260 m) above sea level. The name also applies to the neighborhoods that sit on this hill.
Matugga is an urban centre in the Central Region of Uganda.
M. Ayodele Heath is an American poet, spoken-word performer, and fiction writer.
Ivan Matthias Mulumba is a Ugandan writer and valuation surveyor. He is the author of two collections of poems, Poetry in Motion and Rumblings of a tree, and a novel, The Honking. His work has appeared in The Kalahari Review, Reader's Cafe Africa, Africa Book Club, Munyori literary journal, Lawino-magazine, and Sooo Many Stories. He was nominated for the 2018 Young Achievers Awards.
Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva is a Ugandan writer, poet, actress, literary activist, and biographer. She is the founder of the Babishai Niwe (BN) Poetry Foundation formerly The Beverley Nambozo Poetry Award for Ugandan women, which began in 2008 as a platform for promoting poetry. It has since grown to include all African poets and runs as an annual poetry award. In 2014, the award will extend to the entire continent, targeting both men and women. The same year, the foundation will also publish an anthology of poetry from poets of Africa. She is also the founder of the Babishai Niwe Women's Leadership Academy..Nambozo joined the Crossing Borders Scheme British Council Uganda in 2003 under the short stories genre. She was nominated for the August 2009 Arts Press Association (APA) Awards for revitalising poetry in Uganda after initiating the Beverley Nambozo Poetry Award, the first poetry award for Ugandan women.
Christopher Henry Muwanga Barlow was a Ugandan poet, notable for his poem "Building the Nation". He was one of the recipients of the Uganda Golden Jubilee medals in 2013.
Davidson Garrett, a.k.a. King Lear of the Taxi, is an American poet and actor, living in Manhattan, who drove a New York City yellow taxi cab from 1978 until 2018 to supplement his acting and writing career.
Iga Zinunula is a Ugandan poet and Veterinary Assistant. He has engaged in rural development work all over Uganda since 1990. He is a member of the editorial board of FEMRITE. He has been a judge at the Babishai Niwe (BN) Poetry Foundation.
Nakisanze Segawa is a Ugandan poet and storyteller. She is the author of the 2016 novel The Triangle. She took third place in the 2010 Beverley Nambozo Poetry Award for her poem "The hustler". She was a participant in the Ebedi International Residency in Iseyi, Nigeria, in January 2015.
Babishai Niwe (BN) Poetry Foundation, formerly "The Beverley Nambozo Poetry Award", is a poetry foundation that coordinates annual poetry competitions for African poets. It was started by Beverley Nambozo in 2008 as a prize for Ugandan women. But in 2014, it opened its doors to men and the entire Africa continent. The first Beverley Nambozo Poetry Award was held in 2009.
Kabubi Herman is a Ugandan author and poet. He uses the stage name "Slim Emcee ". He is poetry teacher, as well as a performance poet. He took part in the spoken word project Kampala Uganda, in 2013.
I-Am Enygma, better known by his stage name Enygma, is a Ugandan rapper, record producer, executive producer and entrepreneur known for his wordplay laced rhymes and always wearing a mask on his face so as to conceal his identity. He rose to fame in December 2010 following the runaway success of his single, Hustler's Night featuring The mith, Keko and Navio. This was followed up by even more celebrated hits in 2011, namely F.U.M.E.M.E. and Ten Reasons. He also represents one third of occasional rap group Klarity alongside The Mith and Lyrikal Proof. Also frequently collaborates with other artists such as Ruyonga, Maurice Kirya and Lyrical G. As an entrepreneur, Enygma conducts private business, mostly outside of the entertainment industry.
Harriet Anena is a Ugandan author, poet, and journalist. She is the author of a collection of poems, A Nation In Labour, published in 2015. Anena worked with the Daily Monitor newspaper as a reporter, sub-editor, and deputy chief sub-editor from 2009 to September 2014. Her journalistic articles have been published in the Daily Monitor, New Vision, and The Observer. She has also taught specialised writing at the Islamic University in Uganda.
Undercover Brothers Ug also simply known as Undercover Brothers are a Ugandan music duo composed of guitarist and vocalist Jay K Mulungi and vocalist Timothy Kirya, whose music career sparked off when they won the auditions and represented Uganda in the sixth season of East Africa's biggest singing competition Tusker Project Fame. The duo released their first album titled At Dawn in December 2014. In December 2016, their song Nsikatila was nominated in the Best R&B Song category at HiPipo Music Awards (#HMA) 2017.
Darryll Suliaman Amoako, better known by his stage name Suli Breaks, is an English spoken word poet. He is best known for his spoken word videos on his YouTube channel sulibreezy. He is best known for his 2012 video "Why I Hate School but Love Education" and his 2013 video "I Will Not Let an Exam Result Decide My Fate".
Peter Kagayi is a Ugandan poet, lawyer and teacher. He is the author of a collection of poems, The headline that morning and other poems. He has served as the Anglophone Coordinator at Writivism, and President of The Lantern Meet of Poets.
Rudy K. Francisco is an American spoken word poet and poetry author. He has won several Poetry Slams and written four books of poetry: Getting Stitches, Scratch, No Gravity, and Helium. He made an appearance on TV One's Verses and Flow and performed his spoken-word poem "Complainers" on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
