Performances corpOrais nas batalhas do Slam Falatu e Slam GO em 2024

Abstract

In 2017, through social media, I discovered Poetry Slam, a competition of original poetry in which poets often address political, social, and cultural themes, and denounce situations of negligence that they experience or witness daily. The Poetry Slam led me to the critical study of 6 poems in my Final Project in my undergraduate Degree in Languages - Portuguese and to propose the research that I develop here. The focus this time, however, is on the performances of the poets, more specifically, of eight participants who competed in Slam Falatu and Slam GO in 2024. The two competitions in Goiás totaled 6 battles, between the months of April and October. The research was developed through field observation, logbooks, and interviews. The arguments of this study are based on the thoughts of Paul Zumthor (1993 and 1997), Diana Taylor (2013), and Leda Maria Martins (2013 and 2021) regarding performance and orality, seeking the hypothesis that the impulse present in their narratives is so powerful that it mobilizes the poets to place themselves more physically present. Following the discussion, I refer to Conceição Evaristo (2020) and the concept of "escrevivência" (a term coined by Evaristo, roughly translating to "writing from lived experience") in dialogue with the writings of Poetry Slam, which reflect real events that directly or indirectly affect these poets who, like Evaristo, seek to build a literature that looks more humanely at marginalized people. And yet, amidst this search, in the poems it is possible to identify what Ileana Diéguez (2011), a Mexican theorist, discusses regarding the crisis of representation in Latin American countries due to the denial of traditional cultures that are part of our identity and the assimilation of European cultures that, despite integrating us, do not represent our totality as a nation. It is argued that Poetry Slam is one of the manifestations that seek this identity and representation. Finally, the analyses develop focusing on four aspects proposed in the studies of Regina Miranda (1979) and adapted to the circumstances of poetry battles; these are body awareness, quality of movement, use of space, and relationship, perceived more deeply through what was proposed by José Gil (2001).