Recently Richland’s Grade 5 & 6 students competed in our annual Slam Poetry Competition. After weeks of carefully crafting and editing their poems under the guidance of professional slammer, Truth Is, and their teachers; the students took to the stage. Congratulations to all of our students on the impressive quality of their writing, as well as the passion and commitment they infused in their performances.
For those unfamiliar, a slam itself is simply a poetry competition in which poets perform original work alone or in teams before an audience, which serves as judge. The work is judged as much on the manner and enthusiasm of its performance as its content or style, and many slam poems are not intended to be read silently from the page. The structure of the traditional slam was started by construction worker and poet Marc Smith in 1986 at a reading series in a Chicago jazz club.
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” – Robert Frost