A Slam Of Great Words, Cool People, and A Whole Lot Of Fun

So, today was the Poetry Slam! It was SO fun. I just had to come here and talk about it!

It started off with three poets, (Yes! Actual Poets!) and the first lady told us a little bit about herself. Her name was Mary Fons, and she was so cool! My friend was sitting with me, and after Mary recited her poem (which was AWESOME) my friend turned to me and said "She is my new role model!"

Then there were two other poets Marc Smith and Dan Sullivan. I think that's their names, but I'd have to double check to be positive. So it started off with the three poets telling us about themselves, how they got started in writing, and they performed a poem. They're what are called Performance Poets and they memorize their pieces and use the body and gestures to go along with what they're saying, which was UNBELIEVABLE!

Then, all the students were broken into three groups and went with a poet for their workshop. In my first workshop, with Marc Smith, we worked on projecting our voices and showing the differences and how it affects a poem. Then we had a break where we got to eat Chex Mix (!)

After that, we had another workshop, with Mary Fons who gave us a list of things to do and not do during a Poetry Slam and Open Mic. (Side-Note: Marc Smith, was actually the person who invented Poetry Slams. I did not even know that a "Slam" meant competing with poetry until today!) But it was SO cool. She is such a cool person in general.

Then (surprise!) another break! Then our last workshop with Dan Sullivan, where we had to write a poem about our name and I used ideas of the Amber gemstone in mine.

Lunch. Then we had the Slam Overview, where we had to go to our "Home Poet" (our first poet in the first workshop) and discuss how our team would compete in the Slam. Then we had the slam, which was so much fun! Our teams finale piece was about a break up, and we had couples arguing in the audience. Then, when she got to the powerful last line, they all stopped. She went to read the poem again, and this time everyone in our group was supposed to argue with another person in our group. This was insanely fun to do! The two poets that had not been coaching our group even joined in arguing together! Once again, on the last line, we were all silent.

After that, the poets did two more poems and we had Open Mic. Honestly, I couldn't and I didn't do it. I was too scared. I really need to get over this if I want to do something like writing, where every once in a while you have to talk to someone! Whoa!

There were a lot of funny poems, sad poems, poems about love, but I was moved by every single one of them.

All in all, it was a VERY good and enjoyable experience and I am SO happy I went! I had a lot of laughs, and I got teary at many poems, and I LOVED it! This definitely gave me some much-needed exposure and I am much more confidant in going forth with my writing.

P.S. In looking over this blog, I realize I have a lot parenthesis. Sorry about that. I just had so much I wanted to say!

P.P.S. This is also National Library Week! So yay libraries!

Have a great day!