A true embodiment of the spirit of youth today is Spoken 3.0, a festival where people express themselves in different ways, through music, poetry, comedy or rhythms and rhymes.
The festival is a platform for expressing voices that inspire and change lives by the power of words and music. It gives artists the opportunity to voice their stories.
The festival embraces diversity and encourages participation of artists from all kinds of linguistic groups, ethnicities, and cultures. It is buoyed by the popularity of spoken word performance, online slam poetry, dramatic readings and even musical comedy about subjects as varied as love, loss, and mental health.
Director of the festival, Roshan Abbas, believes that it is time the people in power move on and pass the baton onto the youth. ‘Having everything to lose and yet nothing to lose’ — Abbas believes that it is the young people of the country that are optimistic and who have hope to work towards the betterment of society and the country.
Quite early in his college days Abbas learnt the significance of being politically aware, as he was told by a friend that ‘politics decides your life and it's about time you decided your politics.’ Rightfully so, Abbas believes that today’s youth needs to be actively participating in politics.
For Abbas, Spoken 3.0 is many things but most importantly he wishes for it to be a space where people feel safe and heard.
“I just want people to say my words belonged here, my words are safe here, my stories are safe here, my opinions are safe here,” says Roshan Abbas.
Spoken 3.0 has a plethora of artists from all across the country. Artists like Srishti Jha, Priya Malik, Varun Grover, Rohan Joshi, Pushan Kriplani aka Slight Diversion are especially popular among the youth for their words and more importantly for their unabashed personality.
