Haley Loeffler/Winonan

A student poetry slam workshop was held on Thursday, Oct. 4 in the Minne second floor lounge.

Poetry slams are explained as performance art poetry. The poems are free form, and do not have to follow any of the traditional poetic rules taught in schools. This form of poetic expression is based in large part on audience participation.

When the speaker or performer reaches a point or a climax in the poem, the audience may and, in fact, are encouraged to cheer and applaud, creating a secure world of solidarity and camaraderie.

When creating a first performance piece, a funny, sarcastic poem with underlying meaning is a good start. Humor can bridge a gap between the audience and the author.

Another common theme for first pieces is on memories, time and the passing of both. Everyone has experience time passing, and the creation of memories during it. Performing a poem about a memory will be instantly relatable to the audience and create credibility there, and also gain the people’s attention.

There are many different speaking styles that a performer can take on during a poetry slam. They can be in-your-face, loud and sometimes vulgar. They can also be quiet, emotional and incredibly graceful.

Poetry slam competitions exist in cities, in coffee shops and between schools. There will be a poetry slam held at Mugby Junction Thursday, Oct. 11 from 6-8 p.m.

This event is not a competition and is the first of many to come in the future on the Winona State campus, Bethany Stavran, facilitator of the slam, hopes. She said her ultimate goal for Winona State poets is to create an event in which high school students are able to perform here, on the campus, in front of Winona State students and faculty. She and the owner of Mugby Junction are considering opening an open microphone night for the spoken word instead of musical talent. This will prove to be a great opportunity to those poets who wish to turn their poems into performance art poetry, but have no place to perform in front of a live audience.

Akeila Jones-Calvin performed her first ever performance piece on Thursday night. Her piece proved to be evidence of the immense emotional power performance art poetry has to move the people in a room. The poets at the workshop said that their attraction to slam poetry is the gateway it provides, letting them share things that they otherwise wouldn’t know how to speak about.

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