Write club isn’t just a club to write; writing is so much more than formulating sentences. It’s feeling, it’s thinking, it’s transforming everything that is abstract into a concrete form. It’s creating universes that otherwise would be missed. It’s recognizing that imagination actually exists and can make a difference. That's why I joined a Write Club and started going to Poetry slams. Here are 7 reasons why I love them:
1. No one actually gets slammed.
Poetry slams are all about using words, not physical force. Sometimes people write and speak about issues that could potentially cause a brawl, but poets use words to defend their stances on these issues and emphasize empathy. The slamming usually concerns awful social constructs that diminish empathy. Empathy cannot exist without communication, so I also love poetry slams because…
2. My voice is heard.
Sharing poems at a poetry slam allows for my own perspective to be shared and understood. Without using my voice to express myself, I can feel misunderstood without being able to communicate what my thoughts and feelings truly are. Everyone at some point in their lives feels like they have been judged for something about themselves other than what is most vital: what they have to say for themselves. Sometimes we are silenced, and poetry slams allow us to be heard despite being silenced in other venues. Poetry slams allow us to be our own spokesperson and prevent dehumanization since…
3. It's firsthand knowledge.
The phrase “firsthand” comes from literally shaking someone’s hand when being introduced to them. This is an important phrase in our culture because it implies that we can’t know someone without direct exposure. We can get to know people through their poetry, especially since plagiarism is completely prohibited and poets use their own voices. Poems give us material to start conversations with people and the foundation to relate to them. They promote communication because they are communication. We can relate to and know of people that we read about in magazines, but we cannot say we know them without starting a conversation because that requires a dynamic. So...
4. It's all about empathy!
Although a poetry slam is a competition, hearing other peoples’ voices allow us to be more empathetic towards different perspectives. It means a lot to me to share a poem and know that people are there because they want to know a perspective other than their own. Listening to poems is acknowledging that other people have feelings and thoughts that are just as valid as our own. People don’t “boo” the poets. Instead, people support them for opening up and making their feelings transparent. People snap and people clap. Poetry slams generate respect for human dignity; poetry slams are like emotional support groups.
5. Every voice is unique.
Not only does everyone have their own performance and writing style, but they also write about different topics. When I go to a poetry slam, I don’t hear about the same subject over and over again like a song on repeat on my iPod. Some people write beautiful descriptions that seem like delicate melodies played by magical harpists using your own heartstrings. Other people might use sass, puns, and repetition to point out that perhaps something is wrong in our culture, and perhaps we can try changing our detrimental behaviors, and perhaps we aren’t always right, and perhaps this is a run-on sentence because poems run on and on like each one is a metaphorical marathon to get to that point. Yet, even when we somehow agree on an issue, people always have different words to describe the same stance.
6. It's motivation to write more.
Most people write because they have a reason to write. They are either inspired by their own creativity, or they feel like what they say can make a difference in a faulty status quo. No one ever writes without first having an opinion to write about. We have those opinions and express them because they matter. Our voices matter, and poetry slams provide supportive venues to express opinions that may otherwise remain silent. As someone having the last name of Poe, it gives me a reason to try.
7. It's not about winning; it's about relating.
The people who win poetry slams do so because of how relatable they are. We communicate to build metaphorical bridges between each other. When we don’t communicate, those bridges can be decimated. The people that are rated most high at poetry slams have poetry that cause other people to emote. Poetry is about making life mean even more by documenting it. Poetry is about emphasizing memories that create the history that makes us who we are and who we are becoming. Regardless of who wins, poetry helps us appreciate our lives even more for what they are: a series of moments that don’t always feel momentous until we remind ourselves that each one can be.
