BENGALURU: If there is one thing that can break you and mend you in just a few verses, it’s the powerful force of poetry. And in a world oversaturated with fleeting social media posts and performative opinions, more and more youngsters are taking up poetry to connect with themselves as they try to make sense of the world they belong to. “Lots of young people seem to be getting into poetry. There are a lot of poetry groups which all have different identities. Corporate employees are also participating now, which you would not expect with a poetry event,” says Lakshmi Sankar, co-owner of Atta Galatta, one of the leading places in the city that organises poetry events.
There was once a time when open mics meant standup comedy. But with the interest in poetry has come a growing popularity of poetry mehfils where seasoned poets and beginners gather to appreciate their love for poetry with venues like Urban Solace, Atta Galatta, Lahe Lahe, and The Cafe at Saanchi making it a regular event in their arsenal.
“Because for some time people were alone in the pandemic, now they’ve learnt to value this opportunity to be together and talk about beautiful things in the world!” laughs Kyoumars Freeman, the proprietor of The Cafe at Saanchi. He thinks the appeal of open mics is the feeling of community that comes with attending them.
“These kinds of events bring people together from different backgrounds and foster a sense of community, friendship, and shared interest. It also sparks creative ideas in the audience, encouraging others to explore and pursue their own artistic interests,” he adds.
Denzel Joyson, a 23-year-old spoken word poet, started performing at open mics five years ago. According to him, open mics can be a valuable space for young poets to gain confidence in their voices. “Not only are you finding a place to show off your art, you’re finding a place with people who care about it.
That’s really important for art to thrive and survive. We live in an era of people desperately attempting to standardise culture, and poetry open mics offer these little bits of resistance towards standardisation. By their existence alone, they are saying, ‘Hey, there are a bunch of different voices that exist here, and they all talk about human experience so differently, and we are here to listen to them.’”
Meanwhile, some poets feel that with this influx of new audiences, the open mic space has become too commercialised. “It initially started as something welcoming and inclusive in every sense; it wasn’t commercial,” says Rishita Acharya, a spoken word poet. She continues, “Spoken word poetry started with the idea of resistance; it wanted to subvert the idea that poets sit in ivory towers. It’s from the root and for the people. Now, it’s become very superficial in some ways, with many places asking for cover charges.”
Others have noticed that political poetry has started to face censorship, with some venues discouraging the performance of political content. Mariyam Saigal, who has been performing at open mics for over a decade, says, “Before, we were able to communicate the ideas of the left, right, and centre, there was a dialogue that was created. If someone on the right performed something, someone on the left would write a response.”
Repetitive content and a lack of feedback are also problems, she says. “There’s no culture of dialogue and feedback; people are not speaking in a way that is true and instead are saying what others want to hear. They are scared of causing offence and are easily offended, so all the content is oversimplified.”