PEA’s First Poetry Slam

Bursts of applause resounded through the Lamont Gallery as professional poetry slammer Emily Eastman walked onto the stage; for the last two and a half hours, Eastman had trained various members of the PEA community in the art of slam poetry and the competitive performance of spoken word poetry.

Eastman is part of the professional slam poetry group “Slam Free or Die,” and, alongside co-facilitator Mark Palas, led Exeter’s first Poetry Slam last Saturday evening. Similar to spoken word poetry, slam poetry uses no props and emphasizes the interaction between the audience and performers.

“Through being able to be a part of my local community where I could share my own work, I was suddenly given exposure to this vast collection of people who had been published and performers who were so impressive,” Eastman said.

Eastman discovered performance poetry in Manchester, NH after graduating high school, and has been helping coordinate “Slam Free or Die” since then. “Through being able to be a part of my local community where I could share my own work, I was suddenly given exposure to this vast collection of people who had been published and performers who were so impressive,” Eastman said. “[It was] the most challenging performance that I’d ever done, way more challenging than either theater or music because it’s so much more vulnerable and direct.”

Reminiscing back to their first performance, the professional slammer said that it was normal to  feel “very shaky and uncertain of [one’s] own voice.” However, they are grateful for having had the support necessary to improve. “I think a lot of people don’t have that reinforcement off the bat [...] they deserve to occupy space for their own voice.” Knowing this, Eastman was eager to work with high schoolers. “I want to give the next generation more access to art spaces that I know I would have benefited from as a young person,” they said.

With a desire to learn more about slam poetry, lower Elizabeth Kostina organized the event alongside Assistant Director of Student Activities Kelly McGahie and Director and Curator of the Lamont Gallery Lauren O’Neal. “The idea of being able to combine spoken word and acting is so interesting,” Kostina said. “It’s distilled theater.” Since this was Exeter’s first poetry slam, performers were not allowed to use original poems. “It’s more welcoming and comfortable for people to not do personal works because that might involve a lot of emotions. We’re still testing the waters,” Kostina said.

Judge and senior Vivienne Kraus wished the slam had included original work. Lower Pepper Pieroni agreed, having participated in slam poetry in the past where she could express herself more through her own poems. She said, “The only issue for me was that a lot of judges focused on the content and not the performance, which is the point of the cover slam.”

McGahie admitted that she had doubts about the success of the event. She said, “I didn’t know if people would perform. I knew there were some people who would enjoy performing, but I doubted there would be enough.” However, she supported the Poetry Slam by reaching out to Mark Palas, an artist she had met at a poetry reading. “I thought he was awesome, so when Elizabeth contacted me I immediately thought about him,” she said.

Along with Pieroni, uppers Sarah Hardcastle and Sarah Liberatore, lowers Mia Kuromaru and Ervin Williams and prep Rose Chen each chose three poems to perform: one for each round. Five randomly-selected judges rated the performers on a scale from one to ten based on content and delivery.

Prep Madeline Lembo found slam poetry different from the previous poetry competitions she had witnessed or performed in. “Each performer had a different way of telling their story and portrayed their feelings so beautifully, and you felt their pain,” she said.  She went on to characterize her overall experience as “mindblowing.”

After the first two rounds, the top two poetry slammers, Williams and Chen, moved on to the final sudden-death round. For their final performances, they recited “Knock Knock” by Daniel Beaty and “A Boy Tells You He Loves You” by Edwin Bodney, respectively. Williams won first place with a score of 29.8 out of 30.0, while Chen followed with a close 29.0 out of 30.0.

Williams has performed poetry since he was ten, and finds it is a versatile medium to share thoughts and emotions with Exonians. “[One of my poems is] about a boy who is dealing with a lot of the pressures in the black community and journeying into a more educationally stable environment,” he said. “I think the main thing is to show [listeners] that despite where we come from, we each have our many faults and disadvantages, but it’s time we take a step back and realize how we’re all the same to some extent, and we’re all imperfect.”

Kuromaru, who has been performing slam poetry for the past three years, found that each performer had specific, unique qualities. “Ervin’s voice was very powerful, and it spread throughout the whole room. I saw some people crying during Ervin’s performance because it was so impactful,” she said. “Whereas Rose was soft spoken, yet her words and her expressions affected every single person.”