Poetry Slam

“Starting from ninth grade, I’ve been starting to dip into poetry, and I thought this would be a very fun time to incorporate poetry with performance,” said Blane Zhu.

Upper Maureena Murphy’s footsteps echoes through the walls of the Bowld. As the crowd settles, she clutches the microphone and recites her final poem: “Dear Straight People.” In the audience, students start to hum and nod in agreement.

When asked why they decided to organize the event, upper Elizabeth Kostina, co-head of Exeter’s poetry club Word!,  the Poetry Slam as an opportunity to revive a “lost art” at Exeter. “It was just something that I really wanted to do… We didn’t seem to have [a poetry slam] on campus, so I figured I’d just start a club.,” Kostina said.

One of the faculty members who played a significant role in helping Kostina advertise the competition was Student Activities Coordinator Kelly McGahie. They described her first experience working with Kostina to revamp the Poetry Slam last year. “We actually brought in two folks from Manchester who did an event called ‘Slam Free or Die’ at one of the bars in Manchester,” they said. “I’d actually worked with the man, Mark, on another occasion to bring some poets here—both locally and from Chicago.”

Similarly to last year, student poets could only perform non-original works, after some members of Word! notified Kostina about feeling uncomfortable with presenting their original poems. However, the poets were still encouraged to express themselves, even through the words of others. Regardless of their experience with slams, the event was open to all interested participants.

Upper Blane Zhu has been interested in poetry for several years but has never gotten the opportunity to explore slam poetry specifically. After receiving McGahie’s email about the event, he immediately reached out to Kostina. “Starting from ninth grade, I’ve been starting to dip into poetry, and I thought this would be a very fun time to incorporate poetry with performance,” he said. “It would be a good chance to not necessarily showcase my talent, but have an opportunity to use my voice and get more of a sense of what poetry can be.”

While searching for his poem selections, Zhu tried to find pieces that he personally connected with most. “A lot of them are quite angry and about really dark topics, so I tried to keep it more on the light side while channeling the energy that they bring to those topics,” he said. “I chose poems that I felt like I could represent and that somehow has some sort of relevance to me.” To Zhu, poetry slams was a way for many students to connect with not only others but also with themselves.

Lower Rose Chen’s process in selecting her poem paralleled Zhu’s. Though she became a finalist in last year’s Poetry Slam, she wanted to continue to express her voice through poetry. “Slam poetry generally tends to be social justice related. But this year especially, I wanted to do poems that weren’t necessarily in line with that, but were very in line with my own voice,” Chen said. Other contestants and participants of Slam simply see it as an opportunity to do what they enjoy—perform.

Sarah Hardcastle, another co-head of Word!, affirmed their desire to bring slam poetry to Exeter in the form of an organized club. “I’ve always really loved writing. It’s been a way to work through what I need to work through but also to bring ideas and important topics to the table in a creative way,” they said. “I’m also an actor, so spoken word poetry appeals to me because it weds stage performance and the actual craft of writing together.”

Beyond the annual event, Word! not only serves as a platform for student slammers to perform but consistently works with its members to develop their writing, acting and overall presentation of slam. “The club also tries to focus on writing slam poetry—and not just slam poetry, but all poetry, and talking about performance aspects of it,” Kostina said. “We try to write a lot, and I know that one of my goals for next year is to have two slams—one being non-original works to inform other people what a slam is.”

For this year, as well as in the years to come, Word!’s major goal would be to get more people involved, expanding from purely veteran performers to first-timers who just want to try something new as well. “It’s really awesome to see these people emerge from the shadows and take in this new genre,” Kostina said. “That’s a good feeling.”