APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY AWARDED “BEST LOVE POEM” AT NATIONAL COLLEGIATE POETRY SLAM IN RICHMOND, VA
Out of sixty-eight registered collegiate teams, Appalachian’s slam team, Verses, came home with this distinguished award.
RICHMOND, VA (March 25-28, 2015) – Appalachian State University’s slam team, Verses, a sub group of Lyric, the writing club on campus, attended the largest collegiate poetry slam in the nation during the last week of March for the very first time in ASU’s history. Appalachian’s team members included, Zak Corsi- English, Creative Writing, Barry Jones-English, Film Studies, Sarah (Kip) McMillan-Nursing, Shane (Kermit) Margeson-English, Creative Writing, and Jenna Calamai-English, Professional Writing. The 2015 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) was sponsored by Association of College Unions International (ACUI) and was held at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Each member of the team brought wonderful and unique aspects and writing styles to the competition. The “Best Love Poem” was awarded to Appalachian State University during the final competition of the slam on March 28th, 2015. The poem, “Spanglish”, was written and performed by Kip McMillan and Jenna Calamai as a group piece. The most significant message about the poem is love. People all over the world experience the difficulties of love for fear that they will be judged by their families, their friends, and even their cultures. However, love does not play by any rules; it can affect anyone, anywhere, at anytime. Love has no boarders, no language barriers, and sees past the color of a person's skin. "Spanglish" identifies all these points and whether it is read off the page or preformed on stage, the poem makes a very powerful statement.
Though Appalachian State did not walk away from the slam as the champions, the team did win this esteemed award that recognized the team’s talented writing. With more time to prepare and discover new writers, Verses hopes to return to CUPSI next spring for another shot at the championship.
More information can be found about ACUI and CUPSI here, http://www.acui.org/poetryslam/