Why do we perform poetry?

On January 31st this year, I performed my first poem in front of an audience at a club in Singapore. The original plan was to be an audience and watch others perform their words. However, two hours prior to leaving, I decided to register for an open mic slot.

Why? Because I thought, what’s the worse that can happen. I’ll bomb in front of a foreign crowd.

The ease of being an unknown allowed me to quickly finish my day’s chores, print out a poem that I had written months ago, wear a shade of red lipstick, tie my hair and sprint onto the bus.

On the way to the club, all I thought was, this would be fun. I had zero anxiety. An unfamiliar sense of comforting excitement and the audacity of just being in the moment.

As I stood in line to get a slot for the open mic, I felt okay in making small talk to strangers. Was it their first time? Were they participating in the slam? What did they do? We all felt familiar in feeling giddy to share our verses.

The open mic started and with it the atmosphere of the room began altering. People in office attire, casuals, punk, and ethnic, all seemed tuned into the words that performers began sharing.

But more than that, the audience tuned into their…