Winners of the maiden edition of Getlitnaija, a spoken word poetry competition launched in 2018, have described the platform as ‘a big boost’ to emerging poets in the country.
The two winners, Chisom Irechukwu (Adult Category) and Bosede Bisiriyu (Junior Category) emerged tops in the competition which requires contestants to write poems and make a video recording of their renditions of the works for assessment by a panel in the United States.
According to the twosome, competitions like Getlitnaija is necessary to stimulate the urge to capture the musings of young Nigerian poets, while preparation them for the future.
Chisom, who hails from Ikeduru, Imo State won the competition with her poem, titled, ‘Nomad’. According to her: “I wrote ‘Nomad’ a while back before the competition and it was borne out of just a conversation with myself about how we are all so desperate to be made home of by others that we sometimes let the wrong people into our lives. And at the end of the day, you are yours, before you are anyone else’s. I filmed it in one night. My brother and sister weren’t down for it at first but they obliged me, and so I filmed it and edited it.
“I like to think my poems are less about me and more from what I see and hear due to my being a wallflower who just wants to understand the madness of this world. Poetry is the canvas on which I paint my view of life. All my life, I’ve written in order to make sense of things, of being here, of loving, and being loved, of the finality of death. I love art and writing poetry is the medium that comes easily for me. Conversations about love and loss are definitely my sweet spot. I have a certain ability to feel the melancholy in every person and I love to sit and listen to people or observe people at social gatherings because I think it’s really beautiful how flawed we all are. I’m passionate about women and our stories and my writing tends to be reflective of that love.”
The next edition of Getlitnaija will be announced soon.