Poetic Perspective, Fredonia’s four-member poetry slam team, won the first place trophy at the Regional Intercollegiate Team Poetry Slam on March 4, rising above Mental Graffiti, of host school Rochester Institute of Technology, and teams from three other universities.
Formed last fall as an extension of the student group Writers’ Ring, Poetic Perspective members include Rajae Barnes-Wright (first-year student, Video Production, Rochester), Devin Johnson (sophomore, Audio/Radio Production, Queens), Stephanie Pierre-Jacques (first-year, Music Therapy, Williamstown, N.J.) and Kanard Lewis (junior, Audio/Radio Production, Bronx).
Each member performed an original piece - “All Bad,” by Mr. Barnes-Wright; “Skin Color,” Mr. Lewis; “White Hands on My Black Skin,” Ms. Pierre-Jacques; and “Chitlins,” Mr. Johnson. Teams from Buffalo State (Tha Ink Club), University at Buffalo (UB Speaks) and SUNY Geneseo also competed.
A different group of Fredonia poets took third place at last year’s slam, so this first place performance was very fulfilling, Johnson said. Mr. Lewis was the lone Fredonian who competed last year at the slam, whose location has rotated among participating schools.
“Our poets - Kanard, Devin, Rajae and Stephanie - performed beyond themselves at the competition. They were able to take their message and put a performance behind it that engages everyone in the audience,” said Brandon Williamson, their coach and a counselor in the Admissions Office. Fellow classmate Markus Arthur joined the Fredonia contingent at RIT to provide valuable support, Johnson added.
Mr. Williamson, who founded the Regional Intercollegiate Team Poetry Slam, run by Pure Ink Poetry, a nationally-ranked poetry organization based in Buffalo, three years ago to bring together poetry communities from various schools. He’s watched team members grow and develop together under Johnson’s leadership.
Fredonia competed against teams stocked with poets who have performed at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, a national competition.
“I met with each of them individually and we worked on their technique and performance, but when the competition began they were on their own,” added Williamson, who’s also a talented slam poet in his own right.
At a poetry slam, participants stand up in front of a crowd and perform a spoken-word piece (usually an original work) in less than 3 minutes. Each piece is rated on a 1-to-10 scale by randomly selected audience members designated as judges. Scores compiled by each judge are based on overall content of the poem, as well as delivery.
“We always say that although you're doing poetry for points, the poetry is the point of the poetry slam, and the team really got an understanding of that once they found themselves on that stage,” Williamson said.
Poetic Perspective serves as a platform for artists to work on being a medium between their own work and the audience through public performance/spoken word, highlighting aspects such as voice inflection, levels and cadence, Johnson explained. Its parent organization, Writers’ Ring, helps to workshop all forms of literature to help writers get a well-rounded critique and constructive criticism of their written pieces.
Fredonia will both defend its title and also host the 2018 Regional Intercollegiate Poetry Slam.
