22/04/2019
(The Vac Project) POETRY judge Jason Ntaro is one of Uganda’s top performance poets. His first appearance on the public stage was on 27th April 2007 at the National Theatre, as an inaugural member of Lantern Meet of Poets-Uganda’s first grassroots poetry movement encompassing all walks and ages of life. His performance of his own original composition, “Three Years, Two Months, Five Days”, a poem on domestic violence, introduced Kampala to his unique talent.
Jason Ntaro has since performed at multiple poetry platforms in East Africa: Poetry in Session, Kwivuga Poetry in Session, Tontoma Poetry Session, Spoken Word Rwanda, Open Mic Uganda, Kelele at Makerere. His words and voice have been lent to individual performances, music concerts, studio recordings, corporate occasions, cultural events, classrooms, film festivals and dinner tables.
No stranger to the stage, Ntaro has made numerous collaborations with artists of different persuasion. He has performed duets with poets and vocalists, and competed with instruments like the piano, drum sets, thumb piano, guitar, saxophone and deep traditional African drums. Ntaro carries the belief that the future of any society rests mainly in the hands of the young. With this in mind, Ntaro has joined hands with various NGOs and institutions in an attempt to break the barriers between the old and young. He participates in poetry clinics for schools, gives talks at retreats for young writers leaders, helps youth auditioning for poetry shows and avails himself as a mentor to budding poets and performers.
His work has been featured on various websites and anthologies.
Some of his work and interviews can be found at the following links:
(https://m.soundcloud.com/eric1key/raisondetre-chasingghosts-feat-jason-ntaro-brian-corpus) (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KNmBnwIsDVk)
(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=deAaO0isglk)
(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RBNTM_Y6T4E)
poetry auditions for UACE 2018 A-level school leavers currently in S6 vac take place at the NATIONAL THEATRE on Tuesday April 30th from 9am. Other audition dates are; DANCE - Tuesday April 23rd, COMEDY - Thursday April 25th and MUSIC - Monday April 29th.
