On Wed., April 30, 2014, students and friends collected inside the Black Box Theater for the final Poetry Slam of the 2013-2014 school year. Even a flash flood warning could not stop the Slam from happening; it had the largest turnout of people in a slam compared to the rest of the year and the crowd was filled with energy.
Senior and Host Jash Shah got the ball rolling by introducing the first open mic performer, Senior Molly Minnick. Molly performed a poem entitled, “10 Tips for My Best Friend’s College Roommate.” Next was Junior Nathan Alexander with his always funny stand-up comedy routine. Following Nathan was Senior Kelsey Licata, performing at the slam for the first time with an original poem. The last two open mic acts consisted of the rap duo “G-Money and Tyler” (Juniors Gracie Brett and Tyler Little) who did a cover of “3005” by Childish Gambino, and Senior Ashley Pernasilice who was also performing for the first time with an original poem.
The thunder roared on outside as the Slam portion of the night got underway. First up was Michael Lupano who performed a poem titled, “Choose Your Breaths Wisely” earning a score of 23.9. Following Lupano was Kelly Herbert who earned a score of 26.4 and Nick Napolitano with 27.4. Next was Cody Beck who generated laughs from the crowd with his poem as well as a score of 23.6. The last two slammers, who were no strangers to the slams, were Quinn Baumeister with a score of 28.3 and Carrie George with the highest score of 29.9. After all six poets went in reverse order for the second round, the scores were added up to determine the top three. Overall, in third place was Nick Napolitano, in second Quinn Baumeister and in first Carrie George with a near perfect score of 59.9.
Even though the final slam was over, many of the students stopped outside the theater to reflect on some of the many highlights from the previous slams of the year. Host Jash Shah shared one of his favorite parts of every slam stating simply, “Cody Beck.”
Also sharing her favorites, Carrie George pronounced, “Nathan’s stand-up. It was really cool when we had a guest poet.” A few more memorable moments from the year was Gracie Brett dancing like a monkey on stage and former student Allison Olender, who has gone up and down the east coast performing poetry, coming back to perform at a slam as well as giving helpful advice about slam poetry to everyone in attendance.
Over the course of this year’s Open Mic/Slam Poetry nights, the number of students who entered in the competitive portion of the slam grew from three in the first to six in the last. New as well as old faces competed. One of those faces who had performed at many of the slams was Carrie George. Carrie had a remarkable journey throughout the year coming in second in the first slam, first in the third slam, and first in both the last two slams. George has said that next year she is looking forward to, “seeing new people and performers.”
Senior Jash Shah will be passing on the title of host to Junior Olivia Street for next year.