Poets unite to 'slam' each other |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Feb 27 2008 at 4:48 PM |
Photo by Sarah Ahlers
These three contenders made it to the second round. Pictured left to right, Sam Stecher, a Kearney Middle School teacher, Oracle Jones from Lincoln and Stacy Fox a UNL student.
Shelly Fox
Antelope Staff
Poets and poetry fans flocked to the Roman Thursday Feb. 21 to see students from the Performance Poetry and Prose class test their Slam Poetry skills against other slammers from the area.
At a Poetry Slam, poets read one poem per round and are not allowed to use props, costumes or musical instruments.
The poem must be of their own composition and can't be more than three minutes (with a ten-second grace period).
Depending on the number of poets, approximately half are eliminated after each of the three rounds until a winner is chosen by the five randomly-selected judges in the audience.
Although several graduate and undergraduate students in the Performance class had participated in Slam Poetry before, most were taking the stage for the first time.
Among their competition were several members from Lincoln's Star City Slam team including Oracle Jones of Lincoln, UNL student Stacy Fox and Kearney Horizon Middle School teacher Sam Stecher, who also organized the Slam.
"The crowd was pretty sweet," Stecher said. "It was the largest crowd I've seen at a slam in Kearney."
Before the official Slam competition began on Thursday, poets were invited to the stage for an open mic performance where most of the students chose to reveal their poetry for the first time.
"We have a talented group of writers and performers that are starting to make themselves known," Stecher said.
Open mic, like the rest of the night's poems, varied greatly in topic.
Some were funny and light-hearted while others were more serious and/or dark.
From weird dreams and dissections to sex and special education, the poets kept the audiences' ears pricked for the entire night.
"After a while everyone knows yours and you know everyone's," Fox said. "I love hearing someone's brand new poem that no one has ever heard before."
Ultimately, it was Stecher who made it through all three rounds and took home first prize.
"Write a lot. Practice a lot. If you have one poem that you wrote because you were "inspired" that's fine but it takes more," Stecher said.
Though none of the students made it past the first round, they all enjoyed the Slam Poetry experience.
"The points aren't the point, the poetry is," Fox said.
It sounds like Slam may have found a new home in Kearney.
Stecher said he'll be putting on three or four Slams in Kearney in 2008, as long as he can find some help.
"It would be great to have more slams in Kearney. However, somebody needs to step up to the organization role. I don't want to be that guy," Stecher said.
Any volunteers who would like to help keep Slam Poetry coming to Kearney would be much appreciated, both by the poets and the fans.
