Three minutes and 10 seconds is the time frame PV’s Productive Poets have to move an audience and a panel of judges. Last weekend, they did just that.
For the first time ever, a slam team from an HBCU will be represented in the national poetry slam competition, and for those wondering, that HBCU happens to be Prairie View.
Many students and faculty members have witnessed and are now fans of the electrifying performances the popular poetry squad have displayed, with many contributing to the development of the group. Supporters have attended their house gigs, and slams on campus, as well as the weekly poetry night at Jazzman’s. So, at a moment when everything mattered, where every word had impact toward time and value, the PV Poets took all of that support with them to the University of Houston as rookies.
The ACUI Region 12 is composed of Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The annual slam this year featured teams from eight schools. Texas Southern, Sam Houston State University, University of Arkansas, and Hendricks College were a few schools that competed against Prairie View.
At the slam there are three rounds that consist of two primary rounds and a final round. Within the round, there are three bouts, and the slam master of each team may send up an individual, or one group. A group may be used only once in a bout. Each judge scores from 0.0 to 10.0 points. After the scores come back, they are added together and deductions may be taken for going over the time limit of 3:10.
The team barely survived the primary rounds and made it to the finals by only a few points. Emmanuel Bean, whose stage name is OUTspoken, said, “As coach and slam master, I felt I made a bad move in strategy. Luckily we made up for it.”
In the first bout of the final round, Thasia “Trademark” Madison performed her piece “Waves,” a popular poem in local slams, about her native city, New Orleans. She performed her selection about home with so much passion that it moved the room. Her score of 28.8 put the team on top of the competition. In the second bout, Nyne (Ahmad Hygh) and Bri.Diva (BreAnna Cooper) performed their group piece titled “He Loves Me/She Loves Me,” and they received the highest point total in the slam of 29.4. Fluent (aka Jeremiah Payne) performed his piece about dandelions and chalked up another high score of 28.7. To secure the lead and victory, Bri.Diva returned to the mic and performed her poem, “Enough is Enough,” to complete this legendary performance.
Beating out other finalists from Sam Houston, University of Arkansas, and Hendricks College was the icing on the cake. A year of hard work has placed these poets on the map. As they perform at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, from April 2-6, they will take their pen, pad and sound minds.
Bean says, “We would be nothing without all of the support from Prairie View, and now that we are the first HBCU to compete in nationals, we plan to be first to win it.”