Times TV to roll out poetry contest

Having successfully launched and conducted the K1million Ka Jive Dance Competition last year, Times Television is set to roll out a poetry contest later this month.

The rolling out of the poetry competition comes almost at the same time as the time when the organisers wind up the Ka Jive Dance Competition on January 24.

Times Group Chief Commercial Manager and Times Television Head of Programmes, Dumisani Ngulube, confirmed the development Tuesday saying the idea is to continue uplifting the arts in the country. He added that the competition does not have a sponsor at the moment but stressed that they have put aside an amount which the top poet is expected to win.

"We do not have sponsorship at the moment but there is some money which a top poet will walk away with. We hope through this competition poets will build their profile, expose themselves out there and also entertain Malawians by coming up with quality pieces," he said.

Times Television, which is a subsidiary of the Times Media Group, will be running the competition in association with the Poetry Association of Malawi (Pam).

The two parties met recently during which meeting they agreed to roll out the competition, which strictly targets vernacular poets, this month.

According to Ngulube, the competition will be featuring as episodes on Times Television, with each of them running for 30 minutes and each episode seeing five poets battling out against each other. Each poet will be given five minutes during the episode.

Ngulube added that the programme will run weekly with dry weekends being the most targeted. He stressed that the programming is expected to offer the much needed entertainment to Times Television viewers.

He also said that the competition will follow an inter-region format where two finalists from each region will compete for K100,000 grand prize.

"This will generate 12 episodes with each season running for three months. We will start with Blantyre this month and then move to Lilongwe in February and later to Mzuzu in March," said Ngulube, adding that the finals are expected to take place April.

Meanwhile, Pam has been tasked to identify three judges for the competition. Some notable names that have been put forward include Alfred Msadala, Benedicto Wokomaatani Malunga and Hoffman Aipira.