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Paper short abstract

The slam poetry competition Best Poet of the Suburb is an empowering arena for young people in Sweden to share identity issues and racism, but also of love and having some fun. When the competition was cancelled, a riot broke out.

Paper long abstract

In my research on migrant writing in Sweden, I include performing literature and poetry such as the slam poetry competition Best Poet of the Suburb. It is an empowering arena for young people to share identity issues, experiences of racism and violence, but also of love and having some fun. Best Poet of the Suburb is organized by United Suburbs. More than one hundred young people compete in qualifying competitions around the country. The finale is held in Stockholm, drawing an audience of up to four thousand people.

One aspect of performance theory is risk – a live performance can go wrong, either on stage while it is taking place, or afterwards when its frames are extended. This happened when it was announced during a performance of Best Poet of the Suburb that the competition was to be cancelled. This ignited a riot at the nearby subway station as the audience was leaving. According to the organizers, the reason for the cancellation was twofold: lack of funding and local politicians’ disapproval of the event. Having experienced the electrifying atmosphere at the competition, Nesrin Yilmaz suggested that the lack of funding from government and municipality was a way to stop art that is critical of mainstream culture. Nesrin went on to say that Best Poet of the Suburb that “had a short but successful life span provides an interesting observation point for different perspectives related to the freedom of artists, identity formation, and power structures.” Now the competition is back.