Poetry Slam Club Debuts

Photo by: Paige Deeds

The Southern Oregon University Poetry Slam club hosted its first performance on Oct. 19, which showcased their writers. Both returning and new members went up to the mic to perform their poems through a three-round competition, in preparation for The Collegiate Unions Poetry Slam Invitational during spring term. 

There were three rounds in total. Four members of the Poetry Slam club had three poems prepared and were judged on both of their writing and their performance. Five audience members had been chosen to be judges throughout the course of the night. They were scored through numbers from one to ten, one being the lowest and ten being the highest.

SOU’s Poetry Slam club is a group of people who came together and celebrate the art of language of poetry. They meet in room 315 at the Stevenson Union at 7:00 P.M. on Wednesdays. Jules Farrar, freshman and member of the club comments that she loves the club because it is “…a good group of supportive people who all like [their] art.”

Farrar came in second on Thursday night’s competition, having performed a number of well-written poems varying on themes about LGBT+ rights and the impact of catcalling on women.

At the next poetry slam competition three writers will be chosen to perform at The Collegiate Unions Poetry Slam (CUPSI) Invitational and compete with other participants from universities from across the states. It’s a four day competition and has three rounds, like used in the poetry slam performance on Thursday night.

“It’s really great to meet other poets from across the country and from a few places outside the US,” said Emil Nance, president of the club. He will be joining the chosen writers at CUPSI in the early spring term. The location of the competition has been undecided at the time.

At the moment, the Poetry Slam club is limited in members. Despite this, each person has a great deal of passion in what they do. This is the case for Hayley Sharpe, sophomore student at SOU, who performed a piece that she wrote called “Remind Me,” which left one audience member in tears. Sharpe loves poetry because it gets people “…to write down their emotions and share it.”

 

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