Students share their talent at poetry slam

AMYLYNN MILLER
STAFF WRITER

On March 4, a traveling poet hosted a student poetry slam in the Gentile Gallery. 

The slam was hosted by Clare McCallan, a Franciscan University of Steubenville graduate and spoken word artist who tours the country performing her poetry for different audiences. 

McCallan started off the night with prayer and then performed a piece of her own entitled “Materialism to help the students get comfortable. She then opened up the floor for students to perform their own poetry. 

Unlike a standard poetry slam, in which people perform their poetry and are then ranked by how good they are, McCallan said she hoped to provide a welcoming, low-pressure environment in which students could share their work out loud. No prizes were given and no judgements were made on the poetry  the event was simply a night for the students to share their talents. 

One by one, students bravely stood and took the stage next to McCallan, telling her and the audience a little bit about themselves before they performed their own works. Enthusiastic finger-snapping from the audience told the poets that the crowd liked what they heard.

Sometimes it’s nice to say how we feel in a different way,” freshman Therese Scanlan said, deliberately rhyming. 

“It was really great,” said Matt Walker, junior. “We had a wonderful group of people  creative minds in the forge of thought, working to use language and the written word to express ourselves in new forms and stimulating formulations that enabled us, I think, to reach an inner core of authenticity that some of us hadn’t experienced before.” 

McCallan performed her own spoken word poetry at a Monday night performance event titled “A Saturday Night Alone.” The student poetry slam was the third in a series of events hosted by Clare McCallan and sponsored by the Student Creative Arts Network and Reslife.