Poetry Slam

A student performs his group’s slam poem.

“Tyra Banks in her infinite perfection, perfecting and correcting America’s youth, creating the model for society,” wrote a junior in an excerpt from a slam poem. A workshop was led by two graduate students, Amanda Miller and Ross Carper, from EWU’s Masters in Writing program. They came to Mr. Mo Owen’s Creative Writing class at Lakeside High School to teach and to promote the GetLit! Teen Poetry Slam contest.

Amanda and Ross explained to the teens that slam poetry is “in your face.” Slam poems are commentaries. They are meant to be performance pieces in which word choice adds to the power of the message. Poems can be humourous, satirical, or very serious. To illustrate, Ross and Amanda brought in a CD of slam poems. After each, the class discussed the meaning and style of the poem. Word choice, voice, and expression were noted.

Next, the teens split into four groups to write a slam poem. They could work on the poem as a whole or each write a section for their topic. Since slam poems are meant to be performed, each group gave a presentation to the class. For a section of his group’s poem, one sophomore wrote, “In the land of hypocrisy, drowning in our own mediocrity, holding us back, keeping us from glory, dragged along by a tide of conformity. The system’s failed. The machine is broken. Pointless and forsaken, people wander, not fully awakened. Going through the motions, but no one knows why. Wake up people, we’re living a lie.”

With Ross and Amanda’s workshop the creative writing students at Lakeside High School were introduced to a new genre of writing. In just one class, they grasped the concept behind slam poems. The results were creative, interesting, and thought provoking poems.