By Linathi Nomntsetse
Reddit’s Poetry recently hosted an open mic evening for a decent crowd of poetry lovers at Amazwi South African Museum of Literature. The hybrid session allowed those who could not attend physically to attend virtually.
Online participants were based in Cape Town and Pretoria, while others attended from different countries, including Canada, France and Zimbabwe. Harry Owen, the founder of Reddit’s Poetry, was also in attendance.
Crystal Warren, Amazwi Museum manager and one of Reddit’s poets, said their goal is to put together people who like poetry and give them a chance to share poetry. She also highlighted that the aim of the evening was “to give poets a chance to read or perform because it can be difficult to find an audience for poets.”
Warren opened the session by reading a poem by Brian Bilston. Later in the evening, he performed multiple sensational self-written poems.
Following his introduction was Marike Beyers, who performed two touching self-written poems.
Almost every attendee read or performed a poem, while others merely enjoyed the session.
One of the open mic poetry attendees, Petro Nhlapo, encouraged scholars to participate in this programme. “You must not be shy, and you must just come; this is where you get trained,” she said.
