Through the flow of their words, the tone of their voices, the passion behind every phrase, Prairie View’s SLAM Team hosted Poetry Night, now held every Tuesday in Jazzman’s Café located to the left of the library. Prairie View’s SLAM Team was the first HBCU African-American team to go to nationals and place 8th.
The eventful night started out with “Open Mic. Those who signed up could go to the mic and recite their poetry. Students packed the room for the third night this year, as they sipped drinks and listened to the talented students.
Along with poetry there’s a DJ who hits you with artists like Jill Scott, Angie Stone, Alicia Keys, and many more soothing songs relaxed the mind and allowed you to really feel what the poet is saying.
After a brief intermission and the last open mic poet spoke, the SLAM Team explained the roles of how the slam session was going to go. There were five judges, each poet was given 30 seconds and scored from 0-10, with two rounds and penalty for going overtime.
After round one and the scores are checked, the high scorer started off the second round down to the lowest, then the top four were announced.
Gwen St. Julian, a freshman, said, “The environment was great, but space is too limited, besides that the poetry was touching beyond measure.”
Danielle Tucker, a sophomore, stated, “I love poetry night and I finally got the chance to perform.”
Thasia “TradeMark” Madison stated that “The competition was intense. The five random judges made it even more interesting, since a few have never judged a poetry contest before. But I loved every minute of it, and look forward to the grand finale on Oct 6.”
The Prairie View SLAM Team will be picking five new members who will join this elite organization of productive poets.