Hope and Resilience. This theme illustrated the performances from Manhattan High School’s Black Student Union’s 10th annual Poetry Slam, held in Rezac Auditorium on Feb. 19.
The event kicked off with words from BSU president Yageen Alhadj and vice-president Ciera Williamson, introducing the night and their partners. MHS’s BSU worked closely with KSU’s BSU and their Divine Nine organizations to invite historically black chapters.
Programming started with a beginning accompaniment from the Blue Notes Jazz band, then six poets took to the stage. Step performances from the Sigma Gamma Rho and Alpha Kappa Alpha sororities and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity were done between every two poets.
The featured performers were juniors Scarlett Williams and Aj’a Clark, senior Laci Johnson, and KSU BSU members NaeNae Cunningham, Nunu Albohsan and Sophia Greene. The poetry slam winner was Greene with her poem, “The American Dream.” Second place winner was Clark and her poem, “They’re Calling” and Williams took third place with “The P Word.”
Having “Hope and Resilience” as the theme of the night, each writer’s interpretations varied vastly, but all showcased coming out from the ashes, triumphant.
“A lot of people steer their poetry towards more tough themes, ” Williamson said. “I feel like ‘Hope and Resilience’ was a good umbrella for all topics, so people don’t feel restrained to try to stick to the topic.”
For Clark, “They’re Calling” wasn’t always what she was going to write. Mulling over topics, she warred over a love poem, but settled on speaking about Black history.
“I was going to sugarcoat it in a way, just vaguely give a description on everything that happens when you’re Black,” Clark said.
She chose to go into detail, explaining her frustrations and putting exposure on struggles and blatant racial injustices. Clark’s poem explored her experiences — unfiltered and unabashedly in her writing — but also spoke about others.
“I started thinking about our history,” Clark said. “Emmett Till and everything like that. So I decided to dig into everything.”
Clark drew rhythmic inspiration from Kanye West’s “All Falls Down,” West having performed the song as spoken word, “Self Conscious” at a poetry slam himself.
“Our only option is to keep being quiet. But they don’t know it’s impossible. It’s impossible to be hurt and to stay silent,” Clark said, reciting her poem.
Clark described this line to be one of the most powerful in her poem.
“African American people, we’re super silenced when it comes to speaking out for ourselves and injustices,” Clark said. “When things are going on, we’re seen as angry and violent, when we really just want to get to the same places that other people get to without even putting in the same work as we do. We just have to go that extra mile to be seen. And sometimes, it just feels so suffocating.”
For poet Scarlett Williams, she entered because she needed to share her poetry and her heart.
“I’m a performer,” Williams said. “I do marching band and orchestra, lots of performing arts… And I think the chance to perform in front of a live audience with an original piece that I wrote that didn’t have music to hide behind… it was a really good opportunity for me to grow on the stage.”
William’s poem illustrated finding purpose in ourselves. That imperfection and humanity should not be the insecurity that it is. To not strive for perfection if we cannot achieve it.
“Or is it so hard to accept our own mortality that we will turn to any remedy, if it will only reverse what is insecurity — humanity,” Williams said, reciting her poem. “I really liked that line because of the rhythm… I got really loud during that one because I felt like that really just summed up what the message was.”
While others pulled up their poems on their phones, Williams recited her poem from memory. Setting down her notebook, she didn’t use the microphone, opting to speak out to the crowd.
“I’ve never been to a poetry slam,” Williams said. “Everything was just so new… I felt like I was the guest rather than the performer… There were no sounds, just black out [and] I had all this time in an original poem.”
There was an empowering atmosphere in the auditorium, from the community and the jazz tunes having set the tone of the night.
Beginning with the slow strolling sound of “‘Round Midnight” by Thelonious Monk and pulling into the upbeat and bright “Backatown” by Trombone Shorty Academy. Both songs were composed by Black artists, an intentional selection.
“[The jazz band] contributes to [the poetry slam],” tenor sax player and junior Khamania Roberts said. “Jazz in general is a Black culture thing… and so it being a poetry slam during Black History Month, it’s important that we contribute and have our inputs during this month.”
BSU is planning a movie night meeting sometime in March. Meetings take place in the cafeteria near the Alumni room after school. Members play games like Jeopardy, or festive themed events, all meant to strengthen connections and empower each other.
“In BSU, you have so many powerful moments with people of your Black community,” Clark said. “When I was a freshman… BSU wasn’t as big as it is now. Being able to experience the community that Ciera and the other presidents built is really beautiful to me, because it didn’t used to be like that.”
