Verbal Blend, a spoken-word poetry program out of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Syracuse University, will host its citywide “Take the Mic” poetry slam on Thursday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the Schine Student Center Underground. Doors will open at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are free and require an SU/SUNY-ESF ID or personal ID from community members.
“’Take the Mic’ poetry slam is an excellent platform for students to voice their experiences, whether they are political, social, cultural or spiritual,” says Cedric Bolton, coordinator of student engagement in the Office of Multicultural Affairs. “The campus and community get to see how scholarship and the arts have no boundaries, and it allows the student performers to stretch their imagination and create a new world through dramatic wordplay.”
The poetry slam is a competition of 12 poets who were selected from an audition process that included students from SU, SUNY-ESF and Onondaga Community College. They will read or recite original material up to three minutes. The competition consists of two rounds that will be based on: (1) originality; (2) stage presence; (3) content; (4) delivery and time. Trophies will be awarded to the students who finish in first, second and third place.
Verbal Blend is a spoken-word poetry program designed to enhance students’ confidence in writing and performance of original poems. The program comprises of a six-week workshop series on poetry forms, formats, journal entries and peer reviews.
Participants have showcased their work at public venues such as themed open mic nights, Light Work’s 2009 Night Artist Reading/Reception with Admas Habteslasie, a day workshop with poet Quraysh Ali Lansana, SU’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, Take the Mic Poetry Slams and a special reading with author Tracy Sugarman.
The event is sponsored by Verbal Blend with support from the Poet’s Learning Community and Nu Rho Poetic Society.
For more information, contact Bolton at 443-9676 or ctbolton@syr.edu.
