{"id":3763,"date":"2016-06-17T10:09:36","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T14:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/?p=3763"},"modified":"2016-06-15T10:09:46","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T14:09:46","slug":"poetry-slam-is-slam-dunk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/?p=3763","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Slam is Slam Dunk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rachel Tropp ’16<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The winner of the Poetry Slam, Emma Hopwood, poses for a group photo with her friends after the slam ends.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EE Editor-in-Chief<\/em><\/p>\n

Gabrielle Tropp ’16
\nEE\u00a0<\/em>Senior News Editor<\/p>\n

On Friday, May 20th, hundreds of students gathered in the THS auditorium to watch words come to life. Thirty poets, narrowed down from an audition pool of fifty, came together to share thoughts on life and loss, love and family, mental illness and beauty. The audience laughed and cried in turn as the poets told both jokes and personal tales, with themes ranging from suicide to school stress.<\/p>\n

The occasion marked the fifth year in a row that THS Poetry took the stage in this annual poetry slam, a tradition that has now become a huge part of THS. Poetry classes taught by Mrs. Balter, Mrs. Shupp, and Mrs. Garcia have been working for months to plan the event, including fundraising by selling T-shirts and getting advertising sponsors, funds which went partially to the prizes earned by the top five poets, ranging from headphones to a GoPro. <\/p>\n

Classes also worked to plan a kickoff day May 16th, exciting the school by putting on a mini-slam in the chorus room throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Senior Caroline Slack said, \u201cPerforming in the poetry slam is an incredible experience. Watching the other poets perform almost opens you up into their world. You can learn so much about a person from their poetry. Bringing something so personal to such a large audience is obviously a bit nerve-wracking, but the crowd is so supportive, and everyone is super appreciative of the poets. It\u2019s definitely a gratifying experience, and after both of the slams I\u2019ve competed in, I\u2019ve been inspired to write more. I would definitely recommend that anyone interested in poetry try out next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slack was right that the audience was supportive. Anytime a poet stumbled or forgot a line, people would begin cheering and yelling, \u201cYou got this!\u201d The bravery needed to take the stage was definitely aided by the acceptance and encouragement of the hundreds of onlookers.<\/p>\n

Senior Erin Garrity said, \u201cThis was easily the scariest thing I\u2019ve ever done. I\u2019m not new to the stage, but there was something different when it came to performing my poetry. Not only does it challenge you to be open, but you learn so much about other people. The people I\u2019ve grown close to throughout the process are some of the most inspiring people I\u2019ve ever met. Everyone has a story to tell– and I am so grateful I had the chance to share a little bit of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The top five poets were, in order: Emma Hopwood, Cam Kacin, Daejah Woolery, Kristen Lethbridge, and Colby Laracuente. Each poet had a truly unique style, ranging from social commentary in rap form to hilarious comedy via list poem. Emma Hopwood, the winner of the slam, confronted issues she faces in her life with anxiety and gender expression in her poems.
\nShe said, \u201cIt\u2019s a moment of my life I will never forget. I was overwhelmed with support from people that came. My poem came from my own insecurities, and sharing my piece was empowering. It felt great to have my voice heard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel Tropp ’16 EE Editor-in-Chief Gabrielle Tropp ’16 EE\u00a0Senior News Editor On Friday, May 20th, hundreds of students gathered in the THS auditorium to watch words come to life. Thirty poets, narrowed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3763"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3766,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763\/revisions\/3766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}