Picture a million words, thoughts and feelings running around in an enclosed box. This is what the mind of a teenager looks like. In order to express themselves, some teenagers need a medium with as many possibilities as their own minds–poetry.

When he arrived at the high school, freshman Josh Grossman was surprised to find that there was no poetry club, so he decided to create one himself.

The club has taken traditional poetry one step further and has been working slam poetry.

According to English Curriculum Coordinator Mary Burchenal, the club adviser, slam poetry is traditional poetry being performed on stage and judged by others.

Chicago construction worker and poetry-lover Mark Kelly Smith created the first poetry slam, the Uptown Poetry Slam. In 1986 in a jazz club called The Green Mill that “evolved into the Mecca for performance poets,” according to Smith’s website, slampapi.com. Smith turned traditional poetry into a serious performance and competition.

An aspect of slam poetry that appeals to Grossman is the way it “builds a bridge” between written poetry and good performance.

“Slam is just a step beyond reading it well,” Burchenal said. “It’s like really inhabiting the poem.”

In slam poetry, the performance is just as important as the writing itself, causing people who do not necessarily have a performing arts background to be exposed to performing in front of an audience, according to Burchenal.

“It’s a great medium to really get across any insights, feelings, emotions, or just kind of funny things that you may happen to come across,” Grossman said.

Using hand gestures and animated voices while performing in a place where they have complete attention, many slam poets convey their often very emotional messages.

According to Burchenal, slam poetry is a way for shy people to express their ideas. Slam poetry sometimes attracts people because of its similarities to rap.

“I think there are a lot of kids who have stuff to say and no forum to say it,” she said. “And we don’t have a regular way for kids to get that out, and there’s sort of a need for that.”

The club focuses in on the specifics of poetry and slam poetry with various different activities such as watching YouTube clips of people performing their own poetry and listening to other members’ poetry and giving them positive or helpful feedback.

Burchenal hopes that the club will attract students from different backgrounds with different opinions and ideas.

“There are so many different kinds of stories that I know this school has in its walls that you don’t hear about,” she said.

The subject of members’ poems range from complaining about having no free time and many school projects to remembering terrible moments in history. Junior Harry Kalish and freshman Ilyas Sadreev have very different topic preferences.

Sadreev often writes about discoveries and specifically focuses on descriptive images. Kalish enjoys writing about personal experiences and expressing his emotions.

“I’ve written about realization, or simply trying to encompass the beauty of something in words,” Kalish said.

Although slam poetry is a competition, the most important part, according to Grossman and Burchenal, is encouraging people to get up in front of a crowd and share their deepest selves.

In slam poetry, Smith, Burchenal, and Grossman each adhere to a singular motto: “The points are not the point; the point is poetry.”

Lily Böhlke can be contacted at [email protected]