Sat 24 Nov 2012 In: Hall of Fame View at Wayback View at NDHA
Wellington’s Ali Jacs has taken out the National Poetry Slam with a hilariously clever piece called “equality”, which also has plenty of serious messages about the fight for marriage equality. "It felt pretty awesome actually," she says of the win. "It felt really good ... but also there was a lot of luck in it, because it's never an exact science, it just depends on the audience on the night. I think I was pretty lucky to be able to strike a chord with the audience on that particular night and do well." The 31-year-old is originally from Rotorua but now lives in Wellington. She fell in love with slam poetry about two and half years ago while living in Canada and has been building up a spoken word scene since she came to Wellington in 2010. A lot of her poetry is based on things she cares deeply about and she likes to have a message, while throwing in some humour. "So that's where that marriage equality poem came out of - basically with the marriage equality legislation going through the way it is at the moment, it's been a really opportune time to take that opportunity to get the message out there and let people know all the silly arguments you hear about why we shouldn't have gay marriage - I wanted to argue to give people a reason to think about why the world's not going to fall down." Jacs is engaged too, which adds resonance, as a wedding is on the cards for about 14 months from now, "provided that Parliament do their thing". She thinks of slam poetry as a free, entertaining form of therapy: "There's a certain disconnect that you can allow yourself when you get up on stage. You can say all of these thing. And because everyone understands that it's a form of entertainment and an art form, you have a certain amount of artistic licence to embellish on the story, change things around, make things up. I quite like that when I get up there and tell a story nobody actually knows how much of that's true and how much is just me telling a story. "I can get up there and have a really frank, open and honest conversation with the audience. In the past I might have really struggled to have that conversation with a friend, one on one. It seems somehow easier to put it into an art form and get it all out there." Slam poetry is alive and kicking in Wellington, where her group Poetry in Motion hosts monthly shows. There are a few groups in Auckland she is aware of too, which are youth and social issues focused, and another in Christchurch. And no, slams are not boring: "if you think you know what a poetry reading is, this is not that," she says. "A poetry slam is very different from a poetry reading. I encourage people to get out there and give it a go."Watch her winning poem below: Jacqui Stanford - 24th November 2012