VALLEY POETS DISPLAY TALENT
Hundreds of students, parents watch as poets slam
By Sarah Marr and Brittany Cole
Slam poetry (a.k.a. spoken
word poetry) is a craze that has been sweeping Valley this year
due mostly to the work of the AP English teacher Mr. Dan Meester
and the founding of a school slam poetry club. This year, the
much-anticipated 2nd Annual Poetry Slam competition was a huge
success with twenty-two poets and big cash prizes.
Before this year many people did not know what slam poetry was
or how it worked. Basically, slam poetry is a form of poetry that
is meant to be performed, not simply read out of a textbook. Slam
poetry has its roots in Chicago and was founded in the mid 1980s.
This particular style of poetry has been growing in popularity
ever since then with national poetry slam competitions and a hit
TV show on HBO called Def Jam Poetry. The rules of a poetry slam
are simple, all work must be original to the poet, no costumes
or props are allowed to aid the speaker, and there is a loosely
enforced 3 minutes time limit for all poems. Poems are judged
by a few randomly selected audience members who rate the poems
on a scale of 6-10. High energy and audience participation are
strongly encouraged. The Poetry Slam competition at VC was a two
night event. The first night consisted of all the poets performing,
with the top scores of that night moving on to the finals the
second night.
The competition was held in the VC theater and the slam’s
MC, Stephanie Palmer, did a wonderful job announcing the many
poets while adding a lot of personality to keep the show rolling
smoothly. The first night of the competition was inspiring and
full of many different flavors of poetry, ranging from serious
and thoughtful to humorous and lighthearted. Some stand out poems
of the first night included Ben Walker, DJ Avilucea, Heather Stephens,
“Big John” Hopkins and Kenny Guertin. Many people
were very pleasantly surprised to witness the high level of talent
demonstrated by all the young poets. Also the rawness and honesty
exhibited in many of the works gained a lot of admiration and
respect from the audience. Judging the poems was a tough job and
the audience definitely let their feelings be known about the
scores being given, whether it was good or bad. The scores were
so close in fact that the original eight spots in the finals had
to be changed to nine to allow for a tie that occurred between
two poets. At the end of the night the nine finalists announced
were Nate Dreesmann, Nelly Lecky, Ashley d’Oliveira, Sarah
Suksiri, Ryan Pickering, Albino Garces, Camille Monroe, Montel
Lee and Becky Daily.
The second night of competition was even better than the first,
with each of the nine finalists performing two poems each. Before
the competition even began, Mr. Meester was forced on stage by
the audience to perform one of his own slam poems, which everyone
enjoyed. Once the finalists began, the audience was automatically
engaged in every word being spoken and it was difficult to try
and pick a favorite. This was likely due to that fact that many
of the poets had varying styles of delivery. However, something
they all had in common was their amazing performance and writing
skills. No two poems were the same; some were about love or told
a story, while others recalled an important life experience. In
the end, 3 winners were chosen. The third place winner was Sarah
Suksiri who received a $50 dollar prize, the second place winner
was Ashley d ‘ Oliveira who received a $100 dollar prize
and first place winner along with the title of grand champion
was awarded to Ryan Pickering who received a $200 prize. Audience
member Michelle Plummer commented, “Overall the slam was
awesome to watch, everyone who participated did a great job and
the winners definitely deserved it.”
All in all, the poetry slam was a huge success and will only get
better in the years to come. If you are interested in hearing
more slam poetry you can always come to the Slam Poetry Club on
Fridays at lunchtime in room 424.
