Looking for something in between poetry and rap?
Try spoken word poetry! Here’s some amazing spoken word artists for you to check out and get inspired!
1. Melizarani T. Selva
This famous spoken word poet, storyteller and journalist hailing from KL has her rhymes drawn from her curiosity in taboos and all the things her mother told her not to do. She is also the first Malaysian to speak and perform poetry at Asia’s largest TEDx event, TEDxGateway in Mumbai, and was also the first runner up at both The National Singapore Slam and Ubud Writers and Readers Festival slam. She has also performed on the prominent stages of Lit Up Singapore, Georgetown Literary Festival, Urbanscapes, Raising the Bar, Melaka International Ats Festival 2014, and so many others.
She has even published her own book of poems titled ‘Taboo’ which made the Top 10 Bestseller List of Malaysia’s Largest Online Bookstore, and with worthy reviews of her poems being “unafraid to be Indian” and “unapologetically Malaysian”. What more, she has also been published in The Asian Centre Anthology of Malaysian Poetry in English and also Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
If you want to meet her, she currently organises Kuala Lumpur’s bimonthly spoken word poetry open mic ‘If Walls Could Talk’ and poetry workshop series ‘Poets in Progress’.
2. Jamal Raslan
This trilingual Malaysian is a poet who is a great example of the enigma that is the current Malaysian youth; modern, exposed, liberal and yet struggling to find a sense of belonging when you’re an English-speaking Malay Muslim. He used to write poetry exclusively in Malay as he didn’t think he had an English writing voice until YouTube had introduced him to spoken word.
He’s a member for the Poet’s Passport and uses his free time being active in the local poetry scene, competing in slams and invited to grace events around KL. He has also won poetry slams in KL and was a speaker in TEDxKL in 2011, and had also returned as a surprise speaker in TEDxKL 2012.
3. Dhabitah Zainal
This writer and poet is much fascinated with the human mind and behaviour, but ironically prefers the company of cats. She also had a fear of public speaking and found solace in stages after her first performance at IWCT a couple of years ago.
She is also a psychology graduate who believes that poetry has both intoxicating and therapeutic effects. And she had also won the first edition of Slamokrasi and was selected to represent Malaysia in the CEX Poetry Slam.
4. Sheena Baharudin
This Malaysian spoken word artist is also a poetry educator based in Kuala Lumpur, and she is also a lifestyle writer, event curator and founder of the local performing arts event Numinous. She has done both solo and ensemble pieces at various events including the Melaka Arts Festival, Urbanscapes, Incitement, Georgetown Literary Fest, and Lit Up Fest in Singapore.
She had also worked with director Joe Hasam in Shakespeare Sonnets and has also published her first collection of poems ‘Rhymes for Mending Hearts’ in 2013. Since then, her works have been translated to French and even Spanish.
5. Lily Jamaludin
This 23-year-old poet once opened for the US national slam poet champion Anis Mojgani and has also volunteered for the DC-based poetry organisation, Split This Rock. She was also a student of the KL Writer’s Workshop, had recently began acting through KLPAC’s 2016 Theatre for Young People program, and has aspirations to write for the stage soon.
She hopes to keep playing in the intersection between art and social justice and works as a researcher at a social innovation lab. Whenever she performs, she always hope that her audience will discover something therapeutic in her words.
6. Azam Rais
This 25-year-old accountant finds escapism in poetry which revolves around themes of love, morality and also dangerously, politics. He is also inspired by circumstances surrounding him and experiences he has been through, and known for poems written exclusively in rhyme.
7. Jack Malik
Jack Malik’s passion can be felt intensely every time he gets up on stage. This 23-year-old spoken word artist also switches his poems between English and Malay, belting out gripping performances that will leave you breathless. His worlds also hinge on the idiosyncrasies of life and love and took inspiration from Jim Carrey’s ‘Yes Man’ when he first started going to open mics and poetry gigs.
His mom is also an English Literature student under the famed poet Salleh Ben Joned which meant that literature and poems were never foreign in Jack’s life. He was also part of the Malaysian team to champion the Causeway Exchange Malaysia Singapore inter-country poetry slam in 2016 and is a culinary art student, having a love for food as with words.
8. Muhammad Zhafir
Zhafir is a spoken word poet who is often also mistaken for a rapper because he uses hip-hop as an influence to tell stories. He has performed for many events such as If Walls Could Talk in Gaslight Café. His style is main focused around wordplay and rhyming structure. He has also taken stage in TEDxINTISubang in 2016 and has also worked on stages in Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh alongside featured acts such as national laureate A. Samad Said and other artists like Altimet.