Taking place at the Poly Playhouse on January 11, 2019 at 6:30 PM, students recited their own original poetry while getting rewarded for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place. The prizes given where the money made with ticket sales One of the contestants was senior Josalynn Bass, with her poem “Ana”. As she recited her poem it almost seemed as if this Ana was based on an actual person, but nearing the end of it, the meaning started changing from a person to anorexia. Bass states, that at first she had written and intended on performing another poem entirely, until she later changed her mind. In fact, the poem she performed was written “last minute” but was proven to be the right choice according to Bass. Her inspiration for “Ana” was based off of personal experience, but she also in part wanted her poem to have the ability to be able to resonate with the audience. She had hoped that after being heard, her poem might “relate with somebody else”, as it is a topic that is often not “talked about a lot”, since representation is not shown.
Junior, Hannah Gardiner was also present, during the event, in reciting her poem “Normal”. Similar to the kind of twist “Ana” gave, the message it conveyed was one of how someone may look “straight” and be expected to act as such, but not exactly be straight. Atopic that is close to Gardiners heart, being so vulnerable on stage was a choice she made, when it would’ve been so easy to simply follow the prompt. Slam Poetry was an assignment given to the students, a part of Drama, as an assignment and Gardiner had the choice between “writing something for credit” or “actually putting [my] emotion into it”. Gardiner also used her personal experience as an inspiration when writing her poem. As for writing the poem, it took her “less than a minute” to come up with an idea of what kind of poem she wanted, versus finalizing her idea took “weeks”. Even the night before Poetry Slam, Gardiner was still “changing things” and was not as satisfied with the final product but liked “how it turned out”.
Although everyone who showed up put their emotions out for all to see and recited their exceptional pieces, only three students walked away with prize money given to those who donated upon entering the slam. The third place prize went to freshman Ee’gypt Wilson who had not done an event like this before, but felt that she needed to get her feelings across, “I was worried about people seeing me be vulnerable on stage.” She doesn’t regret putting herself out there and was rewarded for doing so. Junior, Amber Payan expressed her anger and intense sadness for all the women who spoke out sexual assault this past year. She expressed her hatred towards abusers, and her empathy for survivors. Her passion awarded her the second place prize. The winner of the poetry slam was junior Angelina Taylor, who spoke about her identity, as a black young American. She gained the audiences support and praise with every line she spoke. The crowd was filled with snaps, applause, and words that showcased their approval. Overall the poetry slam was a success, everyone gave their best effort, they went home proud, knowing that they had put themselves out there and were praised for it.
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