April is Poetry Month. 

Last week, just a little early, we hosted our first ever Springfield Slam. 

The kids from Literary Mag, Gay Straight Alliance, and Gallery Club, who helped me organize the event, assured me,

Dr. V, there will be poems. 

I worried anyway.

No need for that.  There was a poem or two in nearly every kiddo’s pocket.  We filled two powerful hours with poetry.  We filled the room with nearly fifty fully engaged kids and a few teachers. 

In the hope that our story may help you literally spread the word in your own spaces, here’s the Springfield scoop.

And here’s a slideshow:

But let’s rewind a bit.

I was first inspired to plan a slam after hearing Phil Goerner talk about his events at Silver Creek High School (CO) at the SLJ Summit.  As a model, Phil shared this video of a lunchtime slam he hosted back in May.

Video streaming by Ustream

We followed much of Phil’s advice as well.  He shared:

I go over the rules: each poet recites his/her own work, no props, not longer than 3 mins, encourage audience participation.  In melodramatic style I encourage the audience to cheer, boo, laugh, sigh at all the right places. (mostly cheer) I explain the 5 judges will score from 1-10 or anything in between, but they are to be consistent. We throw out the top and bottom scores then add the remaining 3 scores for the poets total.  Top two scores go to the finals Gather cheesy prizes

The kids advertised with quirky, handwritten posters all over the school, shared videos on the morning announcements, and poster this Smore poste soliciting submissions on the school and library website. We collected materials and ideas and an agenda in the Springfield Slam wiki. We created a judging form.

Weather delays and conflicts with other school events, including the big musical, forced us to move the date and time host the Slam as a potluck dinner event.  The food was a good idea.

At the event, me, two English teacher buddies, our assistant principal and the club presidents welcomed the group.

The assistant principal read one of his favorite poems.

We broke the ice with a video of Sarah Kay’s Worst Poetry.

We followed with a kind of foundish poem I wrote with my English teacher colleague, Eric Gershman, alternating our reading of the lines:

Can you?

By Joyce and Eric

(J and E) Oh students, my students,

 (J) Can you compare your love to “ a summer’s day?” …

 (E) Can you feel what it’s like to be without a home….like a rolling stone…”?

 (J) Can you “Picture yourself on a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies…” ?  

 (E) Can you talk about your “G…g…g…generation”?

 (J) Can your Muse sing to you of “cabbages and kings and why the sea is boiling hot or whether pigs have wings”?

 (E) Can you hear the “Sound of Silence”?

 (J) Can you remember that “freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose”?

 (E) Can you take the road not taken?

 (J) Can you describe a stately “Pleasure dome”?

 (E) Can you taste the plums that were in the ice box, so sweet and so cold?

 (J) Can you appreciate a tree that “looks at God all day and lifts her leafy arms to pray”?

 (E) Can you count the “ways I love thee”?

(J) Can you tell me why the cage bird sings?

 (E) Can you see the tyger tyger burning bright, can you drink the water water everywhere?

 (J) Can you appreciate the span of my hips and the stride of my steps”?

(E) Can you go for a whirl with your cretin girl?

 (J)Can you wander lonely as a cloud?

(E) Can you listen to the best minds of your generation …”?

(J) Can you imagine a night when poetry is celebrated and expression runs “like wild horses over the hills”?

(E) So, let’s roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair…

(J and E) it’s an invitation across Spartan Nation…can you speak up?  Can you slam?  Can you share?

And then the poetry simply flowed.  It flowed off print-outs, and crumpled hand-written pages, and cell phones.

We had live poetry and we had poetry submitted via video from students who were away at a state conference.  Here are a couple of those:

Genius Nadira from Joyce Valenza on Vimeo.

Yesterday, I had a chance to debrief with student members of our planning team.  Here are some student reflections:

Lauren:

Our theme was student expression. That’s what we saw. The big cool thing was to see people connecting with their work and their passion.  Even those who read favorite poems, not poems of their own, showed this connection.  I love seeing people engage with the things they love and put it out there, getting over any fear of judgment.  This was especially true of the 9th graders. Yeah, there was some tortured soul stuff, but there we so many different takes and kids attacked serious topics heads-on.  The older students were a contrast; they had more experience to share and more time to practice their craft.  I didn’t expect the level of sharing.  Everyone was engaged.  Everyone was supportive.  And the vibe was surprisingly chill.

Lauren reading

Hannah:

I liked the encouraging environment.  We spent time in our planning meetings trying to set up an environment that was supportive and informal, but organized.  People came up to the stage saying they were not writers or artists, but they read poems that were really affecting.   The audience was fantastic. They understood the pressure of reading something personal . Because we knew that getting up and reading was hard, we made sure no one, especially the 9th graders, felt too vulnerable.  I couldn’t have done that in front of a lot of people I didn’t know at that age.  Four years makes a difference. Some of the poems were really personal; it was admirable.  Food helped.