Rachel Tropp ’16
EE Senior Entertainment Editor
“Poetry is six letters and three syllables; for those to inspire, a connection, a voice, a self-discovery, an expression of the soul, the heart finally letting go and the mind finally setting free. It can be whatever you want it to be. Poetry is a gift from our heart to yours.”
These words, written in the back of the program of Trumbull High School’s 4th Annual Poetry Slam, truly reflect the emotion and energy of the event. From the moment the students walked onstage and the lights went out, the audience came alive with the words of the speakers, laughing and cheering and empathizing in turn to the moving poems that told tales of strength, struggle, triumph, and reality.
Bravely, the participants stood in front of hundreds and bared their innermost selves, an experience most people would shy away from.
Caroline Slack, a junior who shared a poem about aging, beauty, and standards in modern America said, “It was thrilling to perform something so personal onstage. The crowd was so supportive and encouraging, which was greatly comforting. It was a judgment-free zone and even though many people forgot lines or stumbled a bit, that didn’t matter because the most important aspect was that they were speaking their minds. Everyone was really putting their heart and soul out there.”
This was certainly true; anytime a poet stumbled, the whole audience cheered and roared in support, creating an enormous sense of community. After each performance, the listeners hollered and whistled, loudly intimating their approval.
Sophomore Amanda DeLucia, who shared her poem about identity, certainly felt the support of the audience. “All who were there know I stumbled and choked [under] pressure, but hearing that crowd cheer for me when I got my rhythm back was exhilarating,”said DeLucia. “The amount of people that came up to me after the show with hugs and praise and astonishment, including my English teacher, was beyond humbling. I know this is something I will definitely do in the future – and hopefully have my words down.”
The thirty poets who shared their original works with the audience had traveled through an audition process that narrowed them down from fifty-five. To be onstage in itself was an accomplishment, and each poet shone in his or her individual way. Many divulged very personal tales of family problems and identity struggles, frankly discussing life as a teenager in the modern world.
While many of the poems were heart-breaking and melancholy, they were interspersed with comedic verse, and several poems that were essentially raps. After the first round, in which each poet recited one piece, the top five proceeded to another round and recited a second work.
The top five poets were, in order: Ryanne Tate, for her poems, “The Other Woman” and “Moths;” Colby Laracuente, for her hilarious list poems about high school as seen on television and the red balls in front of Target; Cam Kacin, for his raps about friendship and home; Victoria Estacio, for her poems about identity and family; and Bailey Brooks, for her poems about her mother’s cancer and love. All the winners took home prizes, which ranged from Starbucks giftcards to tablets to GoPros, all of which were purchased with the money fundraised by poetry students.
In fact, over fifty poetry students have spent months preparing for the slam, doing everything from marketing to staging to advertising. They created and sold T-shirts for sale around school, the front saying “Word,” with the back saying, “Poetic Advisory: Expressive Content.” They were guided and mentored by the three incredible poetry teachers: Mrs. Balter, Mrs. Shupp, and Mr. McCaffrey.
“It was part of a semester project, so it was part of the core curriculum of that class,” said Mrs. Balter. “The kids basically do all of it. They’re put into different groups: fundraising, marketing, advertising, PR, organization of the slam structure, contacting the judges, putting on our launch day, contacting Mahogany Brown… so it’s a huge undertaking, and with Mrs. Shupp and I guiding them, they do that work.”
The culmination of this work is not one but two days of poetry: the Poetry Slam and a Launch Day that took place during school on May 5th. On this day, slam poet, teacher, published author, and educator Mahogany Brown visited the THS auditorium, along with one of the top slam poets from the team she coaches, “Jive Poetic.”
While THS poetry students took the stage half the time to explain the upcoming slam and perform some poems, she and her poet also performed. Many English classes visited the auditorium throughout the day, and its doors were open to students in all lunch waves.
Junior Maeve Hegley, who saw the performance with her class, said, “The performance was really moving. Mahogany seemed to believe every word she spoke and the way she said it made sense to me personally.”
Many others agreed, coming out of the performance very impressed with the talent of both the professionals and the students.
The incredible poetry program at THS has really grown and bloomed in the past five years to reach the point it has today. In fact, this was only the fourth year of the poetry slam and also the first year of VOICE, the scripted poetry performance that took place earlier this year.
Mrs. Balter, describing the origins of the THS slam, said, “Mr. McCaffrey came to me and said ‘Would you like to do a poetry slam?’ I had only done open mics and poetry jams. I had never done a poetry slam before, and I’m thinking ‘Sure! Let’s try it!’ And that first one had thirty poets and we had probably 150 to 200 people come. Last Friday night, we had 750 people.”
This incredible transformation has been a result of both hardworking teachers and students, all interested in bringing the art of poetry to THS.
“I’ve always loved reading and writing poetry and I’ve been on stage many times over the years for music, so it was kind of a twinning of my interests,” said Slack. “I decided to be in the slam after being in the poetry play, VOICE. It opened my mind to the idea of poetry as performance art. I think slam poetry is really coming into vogue – it’s a great way to express yourself and it isn’t highly structured. It’s full of energy and raw emotion, and there was certainly a lot of that at this slam. You’d never guess what some people are going through or thinking about until they get onstage and start to speak.”
DeLucia agreed, saying, “Being in the slam was nerve wracking, but very exciting. I was very excited to share my writing. I had already on a whim tried out for VOICE, a poetry performance, and I loved doing it and performing poetry. After a lot of binge-watching ‘Button poetry’ on YouTube (a spoken word poetry channel) and loving the slam last year, I knew I wanted to participate.”
Hopefully, the energy and spirit of the THS student body will continue making the poetry slam such a huge success long into the future.