Poetry Workshop is A Slam Dunk

22 February 2016Liam B, Ellis ‘16, article and photo

There was an impressive turnout to last Thursday’s poetry slam workshop. Wordsmiths from Grades 11 & 12 flocked to the Collisseum to learn the tricks of the trade from two accomplished slam poets, Jeremy Loveday and Elysia Glover. We were briefed on the history of slam poetry, which they described as “Pouring your heart out, then getting marked out of ten.” They shared some of their powerful poetic compositions, drawing appreciative finger-snapping. We partook in numerous exercises to get our creative juices flowing: word association, invocation (which involved imagining an everyday object from different points of view), and creating group poems. For the last exercise, we wrote poetry on the themes, “Then there was darkness” and “Then there was light.” We took turns saying individual lines from each poem, merging them into a meta-poem of epic proportions. We concluded with the hyperbole challenge, competing to pen the best exaggerated statement. If any students want to try their hands at slamming, the Victorious Voices poetry slam championship for high school students is being held in Victoria from April 11th-13th. Liam B, Ellis ‘16

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