ISABELLA DISTEFANO
Asst. Social Media Manager
Poetic Perspective, the slam poetry team on campus, is competing again in the Intercollegiate Poetry Slam.
Last year, the slam competition was held at the University of Buffalo — however, this year it will be at Niagara County Community College where Fredonia will compete against four other colleges.
Fredonia will go up against Niagara County Community College, University of Buffalo and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Poetic Perspective, which has won for the past three years, is feeling good about their chances.
This year’s competitors include the team’s captain Sophia Moore, co-captain Sarah Hughston, Ashley Halm and Marcia Hunt.
The captains, who both previously competed for the first time last year, are excited to bring the trophy home once again.
Halm and Hunt, however, are thrilled to make their slam debut.
“We are going to win,” said Moore.
This year, the team has focused mostly on the delivery of their performances.
Last year, the team performed three individual poems and one group piece. This year they are all doing individual pieces.
[RELATED: Fredonia defends their winning title at annual Intercollegiate Poetry Slam]
“I think our poems this year are even stronger, and we’ve really worked hard to keep up with the competition,” said Hughston.
The slam consists of four rounds and each team has one poem per round.
Poems must be under three minutes in length, and the judges are picked randomly from the audience.
Each judge must rate each of the poems out of 10.
The highest and lowest score is eliminated, and the average is taken.
Some of the poems discuss important topics such as sexual assault, feminism and intersectional identities – just to name just a few.
This Thursday at 7 p.m., there will be a send-off event in Williams Center room S204D.
This will be a chance for Fredonia students to hear the poems the team will be performing during the championship.
It will also be an opportunity to wish the team some good luck in keeping the trophy that Fredonia has kept these past few years.