Slamming The Poetry Virtually at Sunway National Poetry Slam™ Grand Finale

Sunway City, 20 November: With the pandemic going around globally, the 7th Sunway National Poetry Slam™ (SNaPS™) grand finale was held on Facebook Live on Friday night.

SNaPS™ is an inter-school English poetry competition organized yearly by Sunway International School (SIS) with the support from Ministry of Education Malaysia. This year, the competition started back in September saw participants from 40 international, private, and public schools nationwide submitted their original poems and video citations for the Online Submission (Preliminary) Round. 

The participants are also invited to attend a complimentary poetry workshop by the Champion of the 2018 Asia-Pacific Poetry Slam Competition, and co-founder & director of Poet X, Azam Rais. The workshop was also held online in honour to social distancing requirements set by the government.

More than 90 videos received for Online Submission (Preliminary) Round, 10% of the marks are derived from public votings on SIS YouTube channel, and 90% of the marks are derived from the 3 judges, Azam Rais, Low Ngai Yuen, Film Director, Producer, Actress, TV Show Host & President of KakiSeni; and Professor Stephen Hall, Author & Head - Centre for English Language Studies of Sunway University on content and performance.

Only 10 schools are shortlisted for the Grand Finale, competing for 3 categories: Junior, Senior, and Group. SIS welcomed 3 esteemed judges : Azam Rais, Arisha Akhir, Author, Copy & Content Writer, and Published Spoken Word Poet; and Colin Kirton, Actor, Director, Producer, Musician, & Co-founder and Artistic Director of Kirton Call Productions & Footstool Players.

Poetry recitals today take the form of poetry slam, which is gaining popularity amongst the youths and school children. It is the public reading of one’s original work and the purpose is mainly to showcase the art of poetry, prose, and delivery, in a form of competition.

As poetry and self-expression go hand in hand, the theme for this year’s competition is very suited to current everchanging pandemic situation “#voicesofchange”. The theme #voicesofchange can refer to anything that is happening that reflects changes and uncertainties today. It is up to the poet to interpret the theme and express it adequately. Each participant performed a unique piece by themselves, and the audience was struck by the variety of voices, revelation, and wonder. 

List of winners are as below:

Junior category (age 15 and below):

• Third: Teioh Nuan Ning, HELP International School

• Second: Aaliyah Ibrahim, The Alice Smith School

• First: Anggun Soracca Jaya, Sekolah Sri KDU

Senior category (age 16 – 18):

• Third: Nidhi Ravindran, Sunway International School

• Second:, Lilian Lai Ruey Yee, Sunway College

• First: Anandita Abraham, The Alice Smith School 

Group category (age 18 and below):

• Third: Two Piece of a Pot, Sekolah Sultan Abu Bakar, Kuantan

• Second:, The Mozarts , Sekolah Sri KDU

• First: The M’s (Merissa Rosman Lai and Myra Rosman Lai), Sunway International School 

Helios Award (Overall champion with the highest total combined scores) :

• Sekolah Sri KDU

Spirit Award (School with highest online votes on grand finale):

• SMJK Sin Min, Sg Petani

In line with SIS’ motto, which promotes healthy development in the creative arts for its students as well as harness their academic strengths and personal talents, Sunway aims to provide the platform and environment to nurture students through its annual poetry slam events. Based on track record, SNaPS™ has become the place and space for many young students to stand up and speak out, and certainly allowed them to stretch and work beyond their comfort zones. 

This is the first year that the event was held fully online and it has become limitless. “We have schools dialing in for the Live event all the way from Terengganu, Kedah, and Pahang. Though we understand there are limitation in terms on internet connectivity and technology, but we are still proud that the event has ended successfully with minimal hiccups. Great job to all the committee members and participants who made it happened!”, says Jessica Kenzington, the chairperson of the SNaPS 2020 Committee. SIS is the proud organiser of SNaPS and welcomes students from schools across Malaysia to participate in the next SNaPS event.