CHENNAI: It’s been almost a year since the city’s first spoken word/poetry collective, Mocking Birds, turned five. While celebrating its anniversary amid a pandemic-prompted lockdown in 2020, one of its founders Michelle Ann James shared with CE the group’s vision to provide a platform to budding performers and inspiring expression through versification.
“It’s simply poetry, for poetry’s sake,” she said, on the sidelines of commemorating the group’s birthday through an Instagram live open mic session of poetry reading in English and Tamil. Cut to present, thanks to the collective’s efforts in curating virtual workshops of spoken word, poetry and poetry appreciation during the period, the art form has reached people far and wide, sparking a creative wave. This, coupled with individuals giving their idle minds an inspired jolt during the lockdown, has turned many into poets, notes Michelle.
Tapping on this energy, Mocking Birds has decided to provide a platform for their ilk to let their words flow. For the first time in over a year, the group will be hosting a physical open mic event today at Backyard. Michelle emphasises that it will be a socially-distanced event. “We are capping the crowd both audience and participants at 25 and want to keep it as safe as possible. We will be following all safety protocols — from wearing masks, sanitising hands and footwear upon entry to temperature checks, and will be urging those who attend the event to follow them too.
The tickets have to be purchased online before the event to confirm participation,” she says. Over the lockdown, the group curated over 10 workshops and shared multiple writing prompts, teasing the brains of enthusiasts. Michelle notes that the response they got was exceptionally good. “While people were at home, they wanted to break out of the monotony and art platforms like ours became an outlet. It was an opportunity to step outside of their comfort zones while staying safe indoors.
We also saw that many were participating in these workshops to not necessarily hone their skills but to simply understand the art form. This was very positive,” she shares. During the last year, the group has been able to discover several closet writers, poets and performers, and the organiser says that some will even be performing for the first time at today’s open mic. “Conducting events online gave us a certain exposure, where we had the opportunity to meet an eclectic group of performers.
What stood out was how the quality of the output was exceptionally good. People have had the time and space to get creative and when they attempted writing, we believe that they were able to let their unbridled thoughts flow. This exploration by individuals has brought to the fore some quality writing by amateur poets and writers. They are not under the pressure of being judged and are all excited to learn and that’s the best part. We are excited to meet them in person and host them,” she enthuses.
Earlier last year, the collective had aimed to become a resource organisation, taking alternative ways of interpreting poetry into educational institutions. “With the pandemic still raging on, several of our plans have been put to pause. However, one of the plans we hope to execute this year is to conduct physical workshop(s). It’s always different to share energies in a physical venue when compared to virtual mediums. So, we are hoping to make that a reality,” she says.
The physically-distanced open mic event will be held today, 5 pm at Backyard. Tickets are priced at
Rs 250. For details, visit Instagram page @mockingbirdsinmadras