On March 9, 2016, Bel Air High School’s literary magazine, Reverie, hosted another Poetry Slam and Open Mic Night in the Black Box Theater. Like many others before it, this event was themed, presented as a “Duet Slam,” in which teams of two poets read their original poems together. An unconventional approach to judging and performance brought an interesting change to the slam portion, but at its core, the night was still full of talented students with something to share.

The open mic was started by Ben Rynes, who performed an impressive medley of several jazz tunes. Senior Alex Folmer dedicated his first song, a marriage of guitar effects and impassioned vocals, to “everyone who screwed [him] over,” and he was soon joined by Sam Cranford. The two Bobcats then held an impressive jam session for the audience. Student singer-songwriter Chris Lovorich gave an incredible performance, as did student band The Average, who performed an original song followed by a cover of Nirvana’s “In Bloom.”  Despite lead singer Hector Belarmino’s claims that the band had never performed the song publicly before, it went over smoothly, and the audience reacted very positively. Closing out the Open Mic portion were Mad Libs, with the audience supplying the words (highlights: crusty, Trump, moist, cats,) which were then acted out via interpretive dance.

Following a brief intermission in which the bands gathered up their gear and the slam teams got one last chance to negotiate and plan their performance, host Julie Stuck went over the rules for the slam, as well as explain the experimental rating system used specifically for the night. Rather than the usual scores from 0.0 to 10.0 given out by five judges, Olympic style, the winning team was simply determined by audience response. The winners, it was announced, would become the proud owners of a new cactus.

With the performers ready and the prize in mind, Mary Talbard and August Napolitano (Team “Sbubby: Eef Freef”) took the stage to perform their first piece, titled Expenses. They were followed up by “Burgus Kirg: Have it in a Way,” a team consisting of Ashley Kurth and Kieran Fitzgerald. The duo performed two story-like slam pieces, one about the dangers of driving, and the second a multi-perspective account of a grumpy old couple in a restaurant. Talbard and Napolitano wrapped up their performances with a love poem, specifically, one dedicated to their cats.

After Stuck took the stage again to encourage the audience to applaud the team they selected, Kurth and Fitzgerald took home the winning cactus, naming it after their opponents (Sbubby), and the lights came up on the Black Box Theater. The next poetry slam will return to its conventional roots, however, it will be themed. The final poetry slam of the year, held on May 4, will be Star Wars themed for International Star Wars Day.