The Prairie View A&M University slam team finished eighth recently in the College Unions Poetry Slam Inc. competition held in Albuquerque, N.M. from April 2-5.
The slam team, of Prairie View Productive Poets, or “Triple P” for short, is composed of senior Emanuel “Outspoken” Bean, senior Bre’Anna “BreDiva” Cooper, senior Jeremyah “Fluent1” Payne, sophomore Thasia “TrademarkTM” Masison, sophomore Willie “Willie P” Sowell, and sophomore Ahmad “Nyne” Hygh. Despite the loss, the team was upbeat and thought they benefited greatly from the experience.
“It was a great learning experience,” said Cooper. “The fact that we could compete against the other schools first. Then at the end of the day, sit down and encourage each other to keep writing and ‘spitting,’ it was beautiful and I didn’t want to come home.”
The team placed first in the preliminary round pods and did so by reciting rousing poems such as “Golden” by Fluent1, “Write for the Cause” by Outspoken Bean and Nyne, as well as “She/He Loves Me” by BreDiva.
Triple P was in second place overall going into the semifinals held on April 4.
The team gave more rousing performances, but fell short of their goal.
“My only regret is that I didn’t perform to my capabilities in the semifinals,” Bean said.
Still, he did not think the finish ruined the overall experience the team had in New Mexico.
“The team saw a variety of poets and how they crafted their work. Seeing it on Youtube is one thing, but to see people who are your age, maybe a little younger or older doing it so well forces you to step your game up. While we may have lost, we left open wounds on the competition,” Bean added.
Prairie View Productive Poets has now started the process of trying to replace Bean, Cooper, and Payne since the trio will soon graduate from Prairie View.
Triple P will be holding workshops Thursday’s in the Panther Lounge on the second floor of the Memorial Student Center (MSC) during April to help aspiring poets hone their skills and critique their style so that they may be deemed appropriate for slam poetry.