Students threw down their best beats at last night’s Poetry Slam held at Drake High School.

 

Last night the Redwood poetry team won the distric-wide competition for the first time ever. 

Every year, the poetry teams consist of five participants from each school.

Redwood’s team, sophomore Brittany Newell, seniors Camilly Pereira, Victor Pierson, Adam Rosenthal and Drew Zieff prepared for the competition over a series of meetings.

English teachers Jeff Ryan and Alex Franklin helped bring the Redwood team together.

“In the past few years we’ve made the mistake of not putting everything together until a little bit too late in the game, so we have good quality but we’re less rehearsed,” Ryan said. “This year, though, we started talking about it late last fall and the group started getting together at the beginning of spring semester, so they’ve had a lot more meetings.”

Another change this year is that the group is more student-organized.

“Mr.. Franklin and I decided that philosophically, slam poetry should be somewhat subversive, and the introduction of too much teacher interference makes it more of a school thing and that’s when you lose a little bit of that edge. It should be edgy,” Ryan said.

“So we decided to remove ourselves except for some of the logistics and oversight, and we asked Brittany to have more of the control, since she was the only returning student, and so she’s been organizing the meetings and when they get together.”

According to Pereira, Newell is a very skilled poet and was effective in leading group discussions without dominating them and accepting every member’s perspective.

“When Brittany picked us I think she liked the way that we were different in the ways we read our poetry,” Pereira said. “We all have very different styles, like Adam is very melodic and figurative, Drew is very rhythmic and because we’re so different, I think we have a really strong group this year, maybe even better than last year.”

Rosenthal also said the group worked well together.

“Our group is so diverse,” he said. “Everyone has their own style and I don’t think anyone would expect us to spend time together, but we have a great time together.”

Pereira said she thought it was a great experience to audition and be part of the efforts this year.

“I think songs are poetry, and I think that’s one of the most beautiful forms of expression,” she said. “I think that anyone who tries to write a poem will feel more freedom while at the same time thinking about the emotions that they’re feeling.”

Rosenthal also said that he likes the way poetry helped him to express himself this year.

“I learned that I shouldn’t be something I’m not. Poetry is a giant vast ocean and there are so many currents that can take you away and you just have to find your own. Even if you do go with the currents, it’s okay to be different and use your own swimming stroke.”