What Can Be Learned from e Residues of Verbal-vocal-corporal Performances in the Context of Poetry Slams?

Abstract

Poetry slams are known to many people who have never attended them in person, but who have watched the countless videos available on the web. In Brazil, these contests are led by people from the peripheries and take place in public spaces. These characteristics are often highlighted by scholars who describe them as a decolonial practice, as they reframe the
idea of who can perform poetry and where it can circulate. Given the ephemeral nature of a performance, which is the focus of these oral poetry championships, and the importance of audience interaction and other circumstances that contribute to its composition This article aims to reflect on what can be recovered using only the audiovisual records found on the
networks as a corpus. This analysis is based on a comparison of two different performances of the same poem, watched in person at Slam da Guilhermina, and the observations are anchored in the videos published by this collective and what was experienced at this event. The conclusion is that, based on the records of the performances, it is possible to understand some of the competition's characteristics, but not the facts that happened before and during certain performances, helping to co-construct their meanings