Poetry is defined as a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. Oct. 6, 2009 in Jazzman’s Café Prairie View’s Productive Poets hosted their Grand Slam session, which show casted the top winners of the first two rounds of Slam. The poets are: Thasia Madison (Trade Mark), Willie Psowell (Willie P), Clarence Porter (C-Dot), Chima Chinedo, Brittany Phillips, Gregory Malone (Deuce), and William Hawkins (Will H). Each poet was given 30 seconds each round to spit their words as the audience listened and the judges scored them on a scale of 0 – 10. This particular night’s judging was different compared to the others, there were two special guest judges who were invited by Prairie View’s own OutSpoken Bean. These two judges got grief from the audience because of the low scores they were giving the poets, scores from 2-6. Judges were looking for strong writing, lines, figurative language, and a solid performance. From the judges point of view there were some weak poems, but they do feel that the poets will improve in the near future and come together as a group and be good representatives of Prairie View A&M University. OutSpoken Bean had this to say, “The night of the Slam was enjoyable. We have a lot of work ahead of us being there are no returning members on this year’s team. The poems that I heard need a lot of polishing. We are headed to a competition with some great artistry and we have to be on par. We will get there Being that none of these members have slammed in the past what they are bringing to the table is an empty cup. I’m about to run it over.”
Chima Chinedo had this to say about her experience in the Slam session, “The first poem I spit was called “Touch” and it was describing a sexual harassment issue I went through in elementary school with a teacher and the second one was called “Who am I,” and it was basically describing the black race and pinpointing historical facts about the race. I’m excited about this year and ready for competitions to kick off! This year is going to be crazy and under Bean, Ahmad (Nyne) Hygh and Trademark this year’s team is in good hands. I think the judges’ scores were brutal and slightly over the top, but those scores are probably as close to Slam truthfulness as possible.