Syracuse to Host Inaugural Festival of Orature in Clinton Square

From 12:00 PM to 7:30 PM, the downtown Syracuse festival will highlight traditions including storytelling, chant, and call-and-response. Organizers have opened a competition for participants aged 6 to 18, featuring categories such as spoken word poetry, oral storytelling, and wisdom traditions. Finalists will perform live for a panel of jurors drawn from academia and the creative arts, with winners receiving cash prizes and formal recognition at a closing ceremony.

The event marks the third anniversary of the passing of Professor Mĩcere Gĩthae Mũgo, the late Syracuse University scholar who championed oral tradition as a living, liberatory force. According to Interim Director Livingstone M. M. Mukasa, the festival serves as a public declaration, bringing age-old traditions into the open square to provide young people with a professional stage. The gathering also functions as the incubation for the foundation’s future Prize for Orature, aiming to establish Syracuse as a global hub for the craft. Prospective performers must submit audition materials by midnight on June 21, 2026.