Rüstem Kitabevi & ARTos House, Nicosia; Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, 12, 13, 14 March 2023

was the best one yet!

and the winners are,

Stavros Khatchatryan - 2023 Cyprus National Poetry Slam Champion
Andros Zachariou - 1^st Runner Up
Alexandra Neil - 2^nd Runner Up

Marie Darah (Belgium) - Winner 6^th International Poetry Slam Cyprus 2023
Dimitris Stamiris (Greece) – 1^st Runner Up
Stavros Khatchatryan (Cyprus) – 2^nd Runner Up

Following the huge success of last year’s online voting of the Audience Popular Slammer, it was held this year as well and the winners are:

• on Monday the Most Popular Slammer spot was shared by the 2023 Slam Champion Stavros Khatchatryan and third placed Alexandra Neil, and
• on Tuesday by Lisette Ma Neza, from Belgium!

This year the invited Guest Slammers came from Israel, Yonatan Kunda and Muhammad Aguani, who performed both as a duo as well as solo artists. The third Guest Slammer was our twice Cyprus National Champion (2019 and 2021, with 2020 having no competition) Argyris Loizou. All three performed out of competition.

The invited poet-slammers from abroad who competed were: Dimitris Stamiris - Greece; Dominique Christina – USA; Frej Haar – Sweden; Lisette Ma Neza – Belgium; Marie Darah – Belgium; Matt Charnock – Denmark

The Cyprus based poet-slammers were invited with an Open Call and there were 12 contestants: Aleen Andreou, Alexandra Neil, Alexia Solomou, Andros Zacharia, Kyriaki Andreou – Tanti, Maria Kouvarou, Michael-Angelos Englezos, Natalie Aoun, Paul Stewart, Stavros Khatchatryan, Stavros X Petrou, Veronica Raad

On Sunday, the day before the competitions, all guests from abroad together with the jury and other invited guests (slammers, friends, etc) met at the possibly oldest bookshop on the island, Rüstem Kitabevi, in Nicosia, in an informal get to know each other event, where they performed their poems, exchanged stories, shared a meal.

The judging committee consisted of Constantinos Papageorgiou – poet, psychotherapist, adult educator; Ahmet Yikik – academic, literary critic, translator; Anthi Antoniadou – actress-performer, archaeologist, poet, cultural activist; Catherine Luis Nikita – cultural management, curator, art consultant; Lia Lapithi – visual artist.

James Mackay, academician, poet, performer, slammer was the Master of Ceremonies, and he was exceptionally good this year!

Monday as well as Tuesday started with performances by Yonatan Kunda and Muhammad Aguani, on Monday as a duo and on Tuesday as solo artists as well as a duo. Argyris Loizou, also performed on both nights.

On Monday there was one round and the committee selected the

The Six Finalists that joined the six invited guests from abroad in the competition of Tuesday and they were: Alexandra Neil, Andros Zacharia, Michael-Angelos Englezos, Stavros Khatchatryan, Stavros X Petrou, Veronica Raad, as well as

The 2023 Cyprus National Slam Champion and the 2 runners up, who will be representing Cyprus in European and other international competitions.

The night closed with our six invited slammers performing out of competition.

On Tuesday, our invited slammers from abroad were joined by the previous day’s six finalists, 12 in number, in 2 rounds of competition.

The Six Finalists of Round One competed with a different poem in Round Two, and they were: Marie Darah, Dimitris Stamiris, Stavros Khatchatryan, Lisette Ma Neza, Dominique Christina, Matt Charnock

And the committee selected the 6^h International Poetry Slam Cyprus 2023 Winner and the 2 runners up.

… what people said …

Thank you ever so much for creating this platform so as to be able to experience this. Such a unique and memorable experience. Also thanks for inviting me at the home for cooperation.
See you ladies.
Xx (Andros Zacharia, 1^st Runner Up, National Competition), 15 Mar 23

Thank you so much for having me on this adventure! I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute!
The generosity and inclusiveness of you as organizers and colleagues has been above and beyond anything I could have expected.
The talent and standard displayed by the local slammers was incredible.
Thank you for taking such good care of us and all the food- oh my goodness the food!
It has been an experience I shall cherish and I hope to repeat one day!
Thank you
Matt (Charnock, from Debmark), 15 Mar 23

Many many thanks to you both for making my journey into a totally new territory, possible. I will get my frequent flyer card with u.
Aleen Andreou, competitor, 15 Mar 23

Thank youuuuuu to you two
For the kindness and the organization
And Everything everywhere all at once
It was wonderful
Marie Darah from Belgium, 15 Mar 23

Dear Nora, dear Lily,

I hope all is very well with the both of you and with your beautiful, interesting and complicated poets and.. island. I will be back as soon as possible. 

I write you, days and days too late, out of gratefulness. In Dutch we have this word 'nagenieten' meaning after-enjoying, meaning you're still enjoying what has passed. We also have this word 'natafelen' which means after-table..ing or something weird, like that. It's when you are done eating, but you're stil sitting around the table enjoying and enjoying and enjoying with each other. Long after the food has been consumed. I think I feel both towards our time in Cyprus, I am after-enjoying and after-tabling for the food was as good as the poetry hihi.

Anyways, I remember on the night of the last SLAM I did not find a moment to say byebye and thankyouthankyouverymuch to Lily, just to Nora! So I planned to write you ever since, but I found myself in a lot of poems and on a lot of stages. I didn't find a good moment for it, but now.

Hereby, I thank you for the wonderful three days of poetry, for the inspiring teamwork between the two of you, I thank you for having me and Europe's finest - poets, thank you for taking care of all of us.

I will be back, I don't know when, but I will be back. See you again, like I saw you before.

Kisses!!!,
Lisette Ma Neza, 30 March 2023

Dear Lily and Nora,

Thank you for your kind reply and congratulations to the best Poetry Slam competition you organized so far!

Maybe the Goethe-Institut should think about participating next year with a competitor from Germany? ;)

I will contact the German authors now and let us hope that one of them will agree to come to Cyprus in November.

Kind regards,
Gabi, (Gabriel Gauler, director Goethe-Institut Zypern), 23 March 2023

Thank you!

محمد اغواني-מוחמד אגואני

Muhammad Aguani, Israel, Guest Slammer, 21 March 2023

Thank you both. Honestly, it was an incredible privilege to meet these writers and to hear them perform.

A bientôt,

James (Maccay), MC of the event, 16 March 2023

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