The MSU Slam Poetry team is not like other MSU teams. It does not involve a ball or a score and the playing field is not a field at all. Instead, MSU's Slam Poetry team offers MSU students a break from their daily lives to step out of their comfort zone and hone their passion for poetry in public competitions and open-mic events.
English senior and president of the Slam Poetry executive board Hannah Schulte said most of the team graduated last year so the team is waiting to see how many people join.
Due to the lack of current members, the team is attempting to make any new members comfortable with their poetry skills before scheduling big competitions.
“This semester at least, we are not focusing on competition plans but we are having a lot of open mics to get people comfortable with it, because a lot of people will come to us and say that they like slam poetry or just poetry in general,” Schulte said.
“They want to get more involved but they’re afraid of performing or don’t feel that they are good enough.”
Schulte said the team provides a chance for people with like-minded interests to hang out and allows new members to become more comfortable with their craft.
"We want to make a space for everyone regardless of genre of poetries they like or performing or writing or just whatever branch of poetry they are interested in"
Slam Poetry executive board president Hannah Schulte
“We want to make a space for everyone regardless of genre of poetries they like or performing or writing or just whatever branch of poetry they are interested in,” Schulte said.
Marianne Caddy, a former MSU student and the slam club’s president from 2014 to 2015 said the club has shifted since she started as a member.
“My first two years there were four people in the program... but it was more focused on competing and developing skills,” Caddy said.
“Now it is kinda more focused on community space.”
Caddy explained that the open mic events are generally for MSU students, faculty and community members. A venue for open mic nights and performances for this year is yet to be determined.
Regardless of the team size though, performances remain an exciting experience for slam team members.
“As for performing, a lot of people perform for different reasons, but I just like sharing part of who I am to a bunch of strangers, and there’s not really any rules to it,” Caddy said.
“There’s not really any restraints you have as far as writing goes or content.”
The MSU Slam team hopes to have a big turnout for their club’s first official meeting, considering the large amount of interest they garnered from Sparticipation.
The Slam Poetry team's first meeting is this Friday, Sept. 25 at 1:30 p.m. in room 308F of the main library.
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