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the Racquette
College Life
Poetry Slam Gives Artists a Forum for Their Voices Forest Ashley Staff Writer
Poetry lovers, here’s the event you’ve been waiting for. This semester’s Poetry Slam, or spoken word performance, is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, April 30 in Dunn Hall Theater, and attendance is open to all SUNY Potsdam students and community members. The Poetry Slam happens every semester, and it has been a regular event since 2011 when Elsie Castro, a Potsdam alumna, first introduced the event to campus. “I’m super excited about how well the poetry slam has been doing,” Castro said. “I was inspired by Maya del Valle’s style of Spoken Word. One semester I said, ‘Why not just have a Slam in Potsdam and just spread the word about it?’ That’s the main reason why I called it ‘Spread The Word Poetry Slam.’” Jean-Michael Huallanca, a senior studying sociology and communication, has been a participant of spoken word since Castro first introduced it to him four years ago. “Spoken word is an extension of your reality, put on paper and then performed,” Huallanca said. “Whatever is personal and deep to you is in its rawest form when you perform, because there’s nothing as spiritual and liberating as seeing someone perform something that means something to them.” All SUNY Potsdam students who want a chance to perform their work in front of a live audience can participate, regardless of major. This year’s poetry slam will be different from others in the past, as two guest performers, Steven Willis and Anthony Ragler, are coming up from New York City to join the show.
“I think it’s really great because the talent that I’m bringing up is from New York City and is from a voice of underrepresented students,” Huallanca said. Willis is hosting the slam and running a free creative writing poetry workshop before the slam at 3 p.m. in the Sisson lounge for any students interested in learning more about spoken word poetry. Ragler is an up-and-coming poet who has participated in many poetry slams. His Urbana Slam Team placed second in the nation in the 2014 National Poetry Slam in Oakland, California, and placed third internationally in the Brave New Voices Festival in 2013, according to the Nuyorican poetry website. Steven Willis is currently trying to do 100 shows in a year, and Potsdam is his 31st show, Huallanca said. Paul Halley, a junior studying English with a concentration in professional writing, will be performing in his fifth poetry slam. “In my life, without poetry, all that surrounds me is numbers, information and facts,” Halley said. “With poetry, I can attempt to make sense of this world in a unique way.” Huallanca currently works with students and poets to make the spoken word poetry slam, sponsored by the Center for Diversity, possible by having informational workshop sessions with interested students before the event takes place. “It helps me build on my creative writing process as well, meeting with these other poets,” Huallanca said. “That’s why I write poetry. It allows you to get your deepest darkest thoughts and battle it out with pen and paper.” Poetry is one of many art forms. Spoken word takes aspects of poetry and adds a modern hip-hop edge to it as
it is performed, the difference being there is no music to back up the words. Spoken word is more of a narrative that the author creates, while keeping in theme with rhyme schemes and other themes of poetry. “Well, there is a pop culture element to it, but there is also a historical one too,” Halley said. “Spoken word poetry exists today among many communities as a way to claim their voice and make their ideas come to life, but I can also argue that spoken poetry or oral poetry is not a new thing. Many of the epic poems of Ancient Greece were originally spoken and not even written.” Although the event was created by Castro, it was carried on by Huallanca, who said that he has hopes that members will follow his lead and carry on the event to the following semester, but as of now there are no guarantees. The success of the events since 2013 have been entirely because of the efforts of Huallanca and Leila Deolall. “They made it is as big as it is now,” Castro said. Many of the performers taking part in the event perform for the love of the art form and freedom of expression it gives both the poet and the audience. Supportive audiences can be just as important to the event as the performers. “First, come listen to awesome rhymes and rhythms and fresh arrangements of poetic language,” Halley said. “Second, come show support for your fellow Potsdam classmates, because performing and sharing original poetry is not easy. It is something that takes courage, and it would be awesome if we had an excited audience to share that with.”
April 22, 2016
Upcoming Events Provided by SPW Friday, April 22 —Win at the Financial Game of Life presented by Chris Jones ‘86, Kellas 103, 4 p.m. — Take Back the Night sponsored by Student Activists for Gender Equality, in front of Union, 5-6 p.m. — Grad School Café with the Center for Graduate Studies, Minerva’s Cafe, 8:30-10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 23 — Admissions Decision Day & Junior Preview, multiple locations, 9 a.m.- 1:30 p.m. Sunday, April 24 — Annual East Week Festival sponsored by Middle Ground Environmental Organization, behind Union, 12-5 p.m. Tuesday, April 26 — Campus Discussion on Student Safety Issues, Union MPR, 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 27 — Administrative Assistant Day: 25 percent off logoed items, College Store — Spring Buffet, Thatcher Hall, 11 a.m.-1:30 a.m. Friday, April 29 — Dia de los Libros, Crumb Libray, all day — Carnival sponsored by Center for Diversity, SOCA LOCA, & SGA, Maxcy Field House, 5-9 p.m. — North Country Literary Magazine release party & reading, Hurley’s, 7:30-9 p.m. Saturday, April 30 — Earth Day Highway Clean-up, sponsored by the Center for Graduate Studies, Saterlee Hall, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. — Improv in the Park sponsored by 18 & Up Improv., Marshall Park, 12-1 p.m.
Relay
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Potsdam Chemistry Club members Sam Sprague and Lara Varden prepare for the club’s Chemistry Magic Show during last week’s Relay for Life charity event. Photo by Alexis Orlopp
“I had several people — strangers, mind you — who came up to me throughout the night and said ‘what can I do to help?’” Badalucco said. Out of the 48 teams that participated in the walk, at least 23 of them were made up of Potsdam students and clubs. Other teams included the Potsdam Fire Department, a few local high schools and one from Walmart. It was truly a community event, with people coming together both to have fun and to give hope and support to the many people and families affected by the disease.
Badalucco said that, to her, the most touching moment of the night was the Luminaria Ceremony, when candles are lit inside of personalized bags to remember those lost to cancer. “It was the most difficult one of the night, because it is so vital to remember those who have lost, while still being able to give everyone in the room hope for a cure,” Badalucco said. “I saw strangers comforting each other and holding hands, handing each other tissues and telling each other remember, there is hope. I’m tearing up thinking about it.” To find out more about the Relay for Life, go to the American Cancer Society’s official website.