Bel Air’s creative minds came together for the annual Poetry Slam on Thursday, February 21st, 2013. The Poetry Slam is an event in which students can come and express their creativity through poetry, songs or even jokes, in front of their peers, free of judgment.
“(The Poetry Slam) is a unique experience, because not every school does it,” said Mr. Taylor, an English and Creative Writing teacher, who organizes the Slam. “Everyone should see a Poetry Slam at least once.”
“As much as I like performing, I think I love the creativity that this school can offer more,” said Senior Jordan Wilner, who was the Slam’s hostess. “It amazes me to see the performances.”
There are two sections of the Poetry Slam. One is Open Mic, in which anyone is welcome to come up to the microphone and perform. The other is “The Slam” itself, where participants bring two poems with them and compete with each other for first place. The judges for the Slam are chosen from among the crowd. The participants cannot use any props, their poems both must be under 3 minutes in length and each poem must be of the poets own construction. The Slam was between 4 people: Quinn Baumeister, Hope Daughertey, Sabrina Claridge and Becca Bauer. In third place was Sabrina Claridge, second place Becca Bauer, and first place went to Quinn Baumeister.
Performing at the Poetry Slam, whether in the Open Mic or The Slam, takes a lot of guts. Junior Josh Shah did jokes for the second time on the Open Mic.
“I was nervous the first time, but now I think I’ll be alright,” Shah said afterwards. He enjoys making his friends laugh, but he wanted to switch it up. “I wanted to see if I could be funny on stage instead of just with my friends.”
“Any form of writing is meant to be shared and it brings people together,” said Mr. Taylor. He feels that the Poetry Slam is a place where people can be brought together through the power of writing.