Campus Events Campus News

"Bum Rush The Stage" The MU Poetry Slam

On a chilly October night (Thursday the 6th to be exact), the Monmouth University student group Comm Works, with help from the N.C.N.W., A.A.S.U. and R.H.A., put on a Poetry Slam in the Residential Quad.
The event was supposed to run from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm, but because of a few technical problems it began closer to 8 pm. There were sign-in tables for students who could receive credit for attending, as well as folding chairs facing the stage. While the delays were being worked out, the host of the night Michael Corsey played the song “Pumped Up Kicks”.
When the event finally began, Corsey explained that Slam Poetry was highly audience-dependent and that the audience would need to vocally support the performers.
There were about 20 different performances. Some were musical such as an accapella cover of Adele’s “Someone Like You”, and a guitar/vocal performance of “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac. However most of the performances were a combination of original and published poetry.
An interesting original piece was Nick (a comm works student) poem called Student I.D.. It was essentially a poem about a love interest whose drive to be socially relevant causes her to party too much and eventually her demise. The performance was both funny and serious at times.
Kat Perez performed an original poem about her hair, which more so told the story of how her Spanish heritage causes her to feel a pressure to fit in, specifically having to straighten her hair.
DJ Fountain performed a poetic interpretation of his moving rap song, “Just To Be Different”. The lyrics are a letter to his father who was absent from his life. A video of the performance can be seen here. There is also footage from another outstanding performance by Bryan Morelli who had an original poem based on his addiction to playing an NHL video game. It was very comical and had the audience laughing throughout.
A student named Brad performed a published poem by a well-known slam poet named Jared Paul called “ABC’s for Rodger”. It was a socially reflective piece which was critical of our current society but overall had a very moving message. His performance was energetic and caught the audiences attention, and even more impressive was that this was his first time performing.
At the end of the night awards were given out for Best Musical Act, Published Poem, Crowd Favorite, and Best Original. While the night was extremely cold, most of the audience was able to stay through the entire event, and hot chocolate and cider were available to warm everyone up.
WATCH A MOVIE MONTAGE OF THE SLAM!

Untitled from Kayla Inglima on Vimeo.

FEATURING: Amanda Zwiggy, Michael Corsey, Kat Perez, DJ Fountain, Bryan Morelli, and Brad.

The performance stage at the MU Poetry Slam