Slam Poetry, a novel club at Carmel High School, invites all students to share their poems through captivating verbal performances.
Having held only one meeting so far, the club presidents have high expectations for the year to come. Senior Anna Gumberg comments on their desire to hold their own poetry slam for anyone wanting to share their poems.
“Slam poetry is a really good outlet for your emotions,” Gumberg says while talking about the importance of poetry to members during a recent meeting.
Each year in club adviser Dale DePalatis’s English II Honors class, there is a slam poetry unit where students can use poetry to express their feelings and deal with arising issues in their lives. Multiple poets in the club feel as though that unit is what got them hooked into poetry in the first place.
Whether it be through rapping or haikus, members are using this as a new way to indulge in self-expression. They all seem to be at different levels of their poetic journeys; some may be working on written rhythm and others delivery of the speech.
DePalatis is eager to see what this year will entail, for this has been the first poetry club at CHS to focus on the verbal aspect. He is hoping that over time more students will join the club—as of now there are approximately 10 members.
“I believe this is an outgrowth of our sophomore poetry slam,” DePalatis mentions, talking about how this club came to be.
Junior Alex Poletti is one of the students behind the creation of this group. He has been crafting rhymes for years now and sees this opportunity as a step to get more involved in the school and possibly enter into poetry competitions to enhance his public speaking skills.
“Writing poetry is for yourself, but performing it is for the audience,” Poletti says when speaking about why slam poetry is different from other forms of expression.
Although the club presidents are still deciding what the content of this club will be, they want to create an environment where all different types of students can come together and connect over their poetry.
Freshman Mackenzie Keller believes that slam poetry allows people to talk about difficult subjects that they wouldn’t feel comfortable discussing otherwise. She says she often uses it as a way to cope with problems she faces.
“It’s just beautiful and very interesting to watch,” Keller notes.
For any interested students, the Slam Poetry club meets at lunch on Mondays in Room 27.
-Ellah Foster
