ALEXA Stewart is the 2022 Poetry Slam’s first citizen champion.
Stewart topped an impressive field of 11 poets to win the coveted spoken word crown and $50,000 prize Sunday night at the Naparima Bowl, San Fernando.
The Port of Spain-born poet donned a red hoodie and made a shocking exposé about women being vulnerable to predatory wolves in Trinidad and Tobago on her way to her third Poetry Slam title.
Stewart, who won back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2020, questioned how women are supposed to distinguish between “lovely and dangerous arms” when wolves wear “good men’s skins”.
“So, yeah, I’d like to go out on the date as soon as I’m off the plate,” she concluded to loud applause from both the audience and the judging table, including president Paula-Mae Weeks.
President Weeks sat as special judge for the final. She was given plenty of food for thought as poets Kevin Soyer and Derron Sandy questioned the national status quo with pieces about nepotism and teacher engagement, respectively.
Soyer postulated that “connection” replaces job qualifications and knowledge in modern T&T. Defending champion Sandy, meanwhile, donned scrubs and surgical gloves to “excise the tumor” that is a bad teacher from the education system. They finished second and third respectively.
High quality poetry
Chief judge Elisha Bartels said her panel, including President Weeks, was thoroughly “impressed by the high level of poetry” displayed in Sunday night’s competition.
Stewart, 24, echoed Bartels’ sentiments in praising the high work ethic of all the finalists. A graduate of St. Joseph’s Convent, St. Joseph emphasized the Slam’s importance in getting spoken word “off the bars and onto the stage.”
“To be next to poets who I know work hard, who know how to tune their parts well, to train in front of their mirrors for hours on end. To be placed among them is an honor, straight up. I know you all have already heard all the words about how important and necessary this Slam is to our community, to our culture, to Trinidad to the Caribbean, but I have to echo those sentiments because there is no place in world to do it the way we do it right here,” Stewart said after receiving her large check from First Citizens Bank Deputy CEO Jason Julien.
“I am truly grateful to all of you and I hope this poem resonates beyond today’s stage. This is always my wish every time I come up here and I have the honor to listen to everyone. I want to say something else, thank you,” an emotional Stewart concluded.
Results of the First National Citizens Poetry Finals
1. Alexandra Stewart
2. Kevin Sawyer
3. Sandy Pig
