People express themselves in different ways, whether through music or poetry, rhymes and rhythms, comedy or by setting a fashion statement and a passion for the arts. It gives them power to voice out. Spoken Fest 2019 creates a platform for expressing your voice, to inspire and change lives by letting us drown in an ocean of words and music. 

The weekend of 12th and 13^th was well spent at the Jio Garden, BKC relaxing in the grass as we watched poetic and inspirational words, sang along with Indo-Rock band Indian Ocean and head banged to sound of the ethnic blend of genres by Alif.

Aku Naru an American rapper brought the crowd to its feet with her deep, poetic rhythm with a mixture of jazz and R&B. She also held a workshop on hip-hop and rap and gave her insights on black culture in the music industry. Being a black women herself and the struggles faced due to stereotyping such music, she stated that she created music for herself, stemming from a “need to create, to express myself.”

With the sun glistening on our face, we pruned our ears to the melodious and poetic voice of singer Ditty (Aditi Veena) who spoke about serenity travels. The singer, poet describes her sound as ‘Adult Contemporary’ that swings between soul, blues, and rhythms. There was also Elsz package neatly with a voice spurring of raw emotion. An elegant and an evocative dancer, who  transfixes the crowd with her mix of hypnotic pulsating beat, dynamic vocals and of course with her chic harp, literally put you in a spell for a moment or two.

As Plato put it, “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything”. We truly felt what Plato meant as the most awaited indie- folk singer, songwriter of the fest made its way to the stage. Prateek Kuhad had a way into our hearts and sucking us into his world of ballads, tranfixiated us as he moved from one instrument to another, from guitar to keyboard, to the piano, with practised precision. The crowd joined him in singing his most tear jerking, heartwarming ballads. One of them cold/ mess a song on love and passion, got the crowd in a trance, swaying with every beat and singing along. What made this performance memorable was when Bollywood actor and theatre director Jim Sarbh joined the Delhi based singer songwriter on stage swaying and rocking to the song.  As one of the main faces along with Zoya Hassein in the EP video of Cold/ mess, fans were awe struck to see Sarbh before them. The night wouldn't have felt complete without a duet as Ankur Tewari and Prateek Kuhad performed Dil Beparvah sending shivers down our spine.

What makes Spoken fest unique is that it provides a platform for unspoken words, words that have been repressed; it provides a place, a safe haven to be true to yourself. The words of Bharath Divakar’s powerful poem on his own experiences as a homophobic as he so neatly and rightly strung together, “My sexuality can win me poetry slams, but not my rights”.  The Airplane Poetry Movement also included Sabika Naqvi a gender right activist and a poet who believes that women need to come forward and challenge the idea of male dominance. She questions society and expresses these challenges through her poetry. ‘Mera Kajal’ is a poem written to break gender stereotypes which got everyone snapping their fingers in unison at every line. The founders Shantanu Anand and Nandani Varma gave meaning to spoken poetry by bridging the gaps of expressing through creative and clever use of words and poems to express daily struggles. “We are the girls taught to survive by using our bodies as Swiss army knives” wise words with a lot of depth in every line,

Blythe Braid an educator shared her insights on body positivity and self- love in her poem, ‘When the fat girl gets thin’. Olivia Gatwood a nationally ranked slam poet and co-creator of the spoken word poetry show Speak like a Girl alongside poet Megan Falley indicated that within ourselves, young or old, male or female, we are all a teenage girl.

The children from Slam out Loud were extremely talented. Each child poetically expressed their struggles at school or home. A  beautifully enacted love story were no one dies, but are just lost in a world of routine and no imagination, a love story between “sapna” and hakikat” by Yahya Bootwala the Theater Troupe.

The Spoken fest also had stand up comedians, who had us bent over laughing at hilarious comments and snarky remarks. Kubbra Sait and Gaurav Tripathi and a few others made a Mickey of all things under the sun. There was also shayars performance by poet Rahat Indori.

Besides the soulful music, heartwarming poetry and inspirational talks, the fest wouldn't be complete without a feast. Right? Stalls of mouth watering food ranging from fries to pizza to Asian food to continental fare, to daily local favorites like cheese toast sandwiches and pavs, you were literally spoilt for choice. Keeping you in the right spirits you had Black & White and Bira Bars at every nook and corner for the young and the old. If you were looking for a memento of your visit to Spoken, there was personalized merchandise of notebooks, sketching book, panners, badges clothes and a lot more.

The second edition of Spoken, witnessed an incredible turn out of music, poetry and story-telling lovers. Over the two days, around 10,000 people soaked in the spirit of soulful magic of Spoken.

It was a weekend filled with laughter and memories to take back and cherish forever. You couldn’t ask for anything better than this, especially at the beginning a year. It was music, love, a year of being true to ourselves and surrounded by the people that inspire us. In a city of dreams, dreamers and doers gathered to celebrate poetry, art, music and the of course the ‘spoken word’.

By Salome D’Gama

Salome D’Gama is a voracious reader, loves travelling and listening to music with Prateek Kuhad, Lagori and Ankur Tewari her favorites. In her spare time you won’t find her lazing around, she would be busy either sketching or doodling random prints in books and napkins.