A slam dunk of a poetry event

The written word can be a beautiful thing, but the written word read aloud by the writer is beauty in motion. Giving us the chance to catch some of that fast-pace motion is the ARTos Foundation on Monday and Tuesday during the Poetry Slam Cyprus 2017.

The first ever Poetry Slam Cyprus will feature contestants – from six countries – in a poetry competition dramatically reading their original work. Each reader will have a maximum of three minutes to present his or her poem in front of a five-member jury and other poetry fans.

These slam poets include Julian Heun, who will represent the German slam-poetry scene in Cyprus and Alain Wafelmann from Switzerland.

Heun has been performing in various poetry slam events since 2007. He has won, among other prizes, the German Poetry Slam Prize twice and also the Berlin Poetry Slam Prize twice. Over the last few years he has visited international poetry festivals in Europe, Africa, South and North America with the support of the Goethe Institut.

Wafelmann worked as a civil engineer and mathematician in the field of IT, research and development before changing direction and studying German literature, classical philology and philosophy at the University of Bern – in order to follow his dream of writing. He has published two volumes of poetry and his third hits the book stands later this year.

He performs his poetry on several international stages with most of his poems being written in German, but he also writes and performs in French and English.

The event is organised by the cultural organisation Ideogramma in cooperation with Goethe-Institut Cyprus and other partners.

Poetry Slam
Poetry slam with six Cyprus based poets and performance by six poets from abroad. March 27-28. ARTos Foundation, Nicosia. 8pm. Tel: 22-445455

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.