Shot in The Dark - English Jer

Can someone turn on the lights?

nope. not today. Today is the day we talk about Shot in The Dark, I'd love if we keep it that way.

So turn on your screen to the dimmest, care for your eyes, as reading in the dark is bad-bad and a big no-no. This message is brought to you by The Ministry of Health of saraasalimi.blogspot.com 

And now here we are, as promised in my previous post here , I am going to review my awesome night at English Jer Learning Hub in Shah Alam during their recent event, Shot in The Dark. The second time for them actually, but the first to be done in EJ Hub.

Picture taken from English Jer website itself.

Since I'm came back here in Selangor, I haven't had a chance to join in any event as I was busy rotting, finishing a manuscript for something, alaaa some unimportant stuffs.

Then I saw on Twitter that English Jer was going to host a poetry night on the 12th of May, and I was hyperventilating. I mean, I love poetry, though I secretly hate them, sometimes.

But I didn't sign up for it instantly. In fact, I only booked the place on the day before the event.  I was immersed with some stuffs. So I texted the host, Mr. Qayyum (read: also the founder and the man of EJ), and booked a place. Well because I first read that the seat was limited, (it wasn't), but that's okay, at least I got the direction to the Hub right away.

Mr. Qayyum was warm enough to entertain me and gave me the location, turned out I actually know the place, it just that I couldn't guess from the address. Oh well.

Told ya I'm suck at reading the address. Selangor confuses me now.

Anyhow, I arrived at the Hub 5 minutes past 8:30pm, the time the event supposed to start, thanks to my brother, and hurriedly ran up the stairs. EJ Learning Hub is located at the first floor of a shop lot, above a kedai runcit. Not that hard to find actually. There was no signboard or anything (as the hub is relatively quiet new), except there's an official logo of English Jer on the front door. It was visible enough.

So, arriving 5 minutes late got me nervous, I rarely late for anything, sigh. Luckily as I enter the hub itself, they were just about to start and I paid the contribution of RM10 to the lady in charge. It was dark at first, then it was bright as they turned on the light to allow the emcee, also Mr. Qayyum, to welcome and brief the audience about the programs of the night. 

Shot in The Dark, as explained by Mr. Qayyum, target to uncover new and fresh talents in poetry scene in the area. It's a platform for young or older poet who just about to warm up to the poetry society to perform their piece as a spoken word poetry. Fresh poets, most of the times, or sometimes, (I'm not stereotyping), can be a little bit nervous, a little be anxious, a little bit scared, a little bit uncomfortable to stand up in front of the people, what's more to perform, might also having a little bit of stage-fright, a little bit of everything! Yes, a little bit of everything that may amount to a mountain of negativity that hinder them from the break-through to perform their awesome piece. Thus, SITD serves as the game-changer to aid them in making their break-through. 

Which lead us here, in the dark. Lights are gone, the identity of the poets reciting their poems are a secret, only a brief and vague introduction by the emcee, genders veiled, and only known to the audience the moment the poet speaks the first syllable, a curtain separating the poet from seeing the audience, or the audience to the poet. All in all, it give a safe-space and comfortable zone for the poet to shake off their anxiousness during performing.

Back to Friday night, the flow of the event was set to 3 poet per session, with 5-10 minutes break in between for the audience to relax.  Poetry can be a bit heavy sometimes, yeah we need that break.

Did I mention that I was 5 minutes late. Nahh, there were like 10 more people after me. The HOUSE WAS FULL. The crowd was overwhelming. The hub wasn't that big, but it was spacious, yet it almost couldn't fit everyone. So I guess the seat wasn't limited after all? But that was fine to me, I didn't mind to cramp in a little, I was in the front row, not much to complain for that. There were chairs aligned at the back, and people were sitting on the floor too, with beanbags and all, getting comfy and chilling. 'Twas fine to me.

So the concept EJ was presenting was totally EJ,  "Fun, Lepak, Approachable. "

Getting briefed about certain common rule for a live performance, onto our first poet for the night.

Most poets were a first-timer, but God, I was thrown into emotional spree by just the first session. Probably because I recently got out from a terrible heartbreak? (lie, that was 9 months ago), oh well, anyway, I was connected for most of the pieces performed that night. 

The pieces were set randomly, and we got many genres over 2-hour and a half of sitting in the dark. From romance to heartbreak, life, sins, family, struggling, personal conflicts, even pedophilia! I was astounded through out the night and pretty much just sitting there, curled up myself and my knees under my chin, sinking into the words by words sung from the poets' tongue, without a clue of how they looked, what color their skin was, if they were probably wearing S or XL, if they've performed before in some other poetry event. Zero judgement or prejudice, just their words rang through our ears.

After each session ended, the lights were turned on and the emcee reminded his audience to chill, smoke(if) or just loosen up our muscle. Oh, and audience were required to close their eyes (or look at the clock, lol), to give way for the poets to come out from behind the curtain. 

The turning on-and-off of the lights each break though, were a little bit bothering to be honest. (no not-honest review). Aside from the eye-sore we got on the spot, oh boy I got a terrible headache towards the end of the night. Probably because of the heat too, as it was crowded so the a/c was a bit ineffective to chill the room, though, it was bearable as I remembered. Never mind that, there's always a room to improve, maybe keep it dark or minimize the light during the break session?

Overall, there were among 10 or more registered poet that was super awesome, super cool, super everything, I have no complaints. I appreciated their pieces and their willingness to share them to us, most importantly, their courage to speak.

After the registered poet session ended, we moved on to the open-mic session, giving way for any random audience who brought their piece for the night and to perform them. The answers from the crowd was filled with excitements. A total of 6 more poets came out and continued the night with more beautiful ideas and stories. Was I one of the six? Nope. I got chickened out was like, maybe next time, because there were 6 people already, and I'm starting to get the headache by this time. Haha.

The event concluded after the open-mic session, a thankful speech by the emcee and was welcomed by appalling claps from the audience.

Opinion

Did Shot in The Dark accomplishes its objective?

Yes, I personally think so. Most of the poets were heard comfortable in their own voice, and just a couple of exception from a few that got emotional with their piece. Who else does a piece connect most if not to the writer itself right?

Was the handling of the event practicable?

The handling was good enough, chill and not strict. Just maybe the idea of turning on the lights during break session need to be revised. And oh constant reminder about the rule in a performance to the audience would do. Saw one who used his phone the whole time the session was on-going. Other than that, nothing much. Kudos to Mr. Qayyum. The next time, I probably would bring some snacks for the house. yeaayyyy

Conclusion

Shot in The Dark is a great space for budding writer and poet to come and knock the roof down! 

(So Mr. Qayyum can just buy the whole building later and it can fit more people lol)

Hats off to English Jer! More to next!