On Wed., Mar. 26, 2014, Bel Air High’s most creative minds gathered in the black box theater at 6 P.M. for the second to last Poetry Slam of the year.

From stand-up comedy and singing, to poetry and even rapping, this slam had it all. As always, the night kicked off with an open mic. A total of nine students graced the stage one by one; five out of the nine students chose to sing. Both Sabrina Claridge and Sarah Graham sang acapella. Sabrina sang Valerie by Amy Winehouse and Sarah did Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri. Senior Madison Tacka and Sophomore Michael Lupano formed a duet and sang, Breathe (2 AM) by Anna Nalick. To cap off the singers in the open mic portion, both Noah Courtney and Caleb Graham sang while playing piano. Noah chose, Say Something by A Great Big World while Caleb settled on, Fade into You from the hit show Nashville. The next three performers were comprised of Nathan Alexander doing stand-up comedy, Gracie Rothey reading a poem by comedian Bo Burnham, and Gracie Brett dancing like a monkey then sharing an original rap about being a teenage Buddhist. All three succeeded in making the audience laugh.

After a short ten minute break, Mr. Taylor took to the stage and read two of his own poems, Legends and Damage. A line from Damage that earned an abundance of snaps from the audience was, “We all cover up our bruises so that the next bullet doesn’t know where to hit.”

Following Mr. Taylor was a special guest, Allison Olender, who had graduated from BAHS three years ago. “I’m really excited to be back at BAHS. It [felt like] just yesterday I was here,” Allison exclaimed.

She has toured the east coast competing in slams as well as performing in her band Paper Daughter and now resides in Nashville where she is working on an album. Allison read a multitude of poems. Some had been from her own poetry book, Miracle Boy. She even conducted a Q&A with the students in attendance and gave them valuable information about being a slam poet and the performing scene after high school.

Now it was time for the slam to begin. Carrie George, Nick Napolitano, and Cody Beck went head to head each reading two original poems in two rounds. Cody came out on top the first round receiving the highest score, but Carrie knocked him off the throne in the second. As a result, the creative night concluded with Carrie winning the slam, Cody coming in second, and Nick receiving third.

The last poetry slam of the year will be held at the end of April.