After a few years of not being able to host the event, the KSC English Department was able to organize a poetry slam with the help of a PepsiCo grant.
The event was held on Wednesday, April 2, at 4 p.m. in the Mason Library’s Center for Research and Writing, and with the accompaniment of cookies, brownies and pink lemonade, the room was quickly filled with the event’s 17 readers, as well as many audience members.
“I had no idea where they came from and who they were, but there were a number of people there,” English Professor Brinda Charry said. “The room was packed, so I’m really happy with the way it went.”
Each reader was called up to a podium in front of a colorfully decorated whiteboard to read one poem no longer than four minutes. After each poem, the judges would have a little bit to write down notes. Charry talked about the number of readers at the event and how there were more than she had expected.
“I had no idea there would be this many, and in fact the judges had a hard time judging because there were so many,” Charry said.
Because of the PepsiCo grant, the event was able to award money prizes for the winners of the competition. There were three judges to determine the winner, which were Ian Kaplan, the coordinator of LGBTQ+ student support; William Stroup, an English professor and Rodger Martin, an English and multimedia journalism adjunct professor, as well as an advisor for the Equinox.
First-year T. Jasper Keyes, the third-place student and the $75 recipient, said he might spend the money on a Domino’s pizza party. His re-sparked love for writing poetry was from a creative writing class in the fall semester taught by Charry, although Keyes has been writing fiction for about 15 years.
Sophomore Des Deery, the second-place student and the $100 recipient, said they are going to put their prize money towards their car. To Deery, poetry writing is a “creative outlet that makes me feel less lonely.” They have also published a few of their own pieces of poetry, as well as fiction.
The first-place student, junior Jackson Caffrey, started writing poetry when he arrived at college after he started realizing what he wanted to do in life, as well as to show his appreciation for the smaller things. He won $125 for his poem, saying he might put it towards going out and getting ice cream with friends.
Charry talked about the importance of the event and what it means to all of the readers who participated in the poetry slam.
“I think there are not enough venues for young people to share their work and to expose their work, and I think for young writers it’s really important to share your work to be sort of validated by a group of judges saying, ‘You know you’re good,’” said Charry. “Whatever work you do in the classroom, that’s important and good, but I think this kind of validation really makes a difference and makes a writer want to go on.”
Hayley Doda can be contacted at
hayley@kscequinox.com
