April 26, 2010

by Kelly Beggs

Damion Samuels '12 and Clint Smith '10 on stage.

Davidson's novice spoken-word poetry team recently placed in the top ten in the nationwide 2010 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) at Emerson College in Boston.

"We wanted to make a good showing and expected to do well," said Clint Smith '10, founder and president of Davidson's "FreeWord" slam poetry club. "But when they announced we were in the semifinals, it hit us that we were selected as one of the top 10 slam teams in the country! It was unbelievable!"

Spoken word is an art form new to Davidson. The 12 members of FreeWord created their group just last fall, and Smith was the only member who had ever been to a poetry slam before the CUPSI competition.

Each school was allowed to send five representatives to CUPSI. In addition to Smith, Davidson's team included Damion Samuels '12, Melissa Guzman '11, Kate Kelly '11, and Danielle Dory '12. Their trip was funded by the English Department, the President's Office, and the Office of the Dean of Student Life. The club usually meets weekly to share recent work and to workshop both performance and text, but practices intensified leading up to the competition, and the five Boston-bound poets worked for two to three hours every day. "It became a varsity sport," said Smith. "I finished with soccer in fall, but now instead of soccer practice I had FreeWord practice."

Amanda Ottaway '12

Thirty-five teams were entered in the competition. Davidson placed second in its initial bout against Eastern Illinois University, Yale University, and Arizona State University. Davidson's team then won first place in a bout against Hampshire College, University of California Berkeley, and Eastern Michigan University. In the first bout, a group poem by Smith and Damion Samuels got a perfect score from the judges and was nominated for "Best Group Piece." Titled "Open Letter to the World from the Brothers of Neda," the poem featured Smith and Samuels as the brothers of the Iranian woman who was shot dead in 2009's protests in Tehran.

"When we got to the slam, nobody knew who we were," said Smith. "Schools thought they didn't have to worry about us in the competition, but I think we definitely turned a lot of heads."

The Davidson poets' early success qualified the team for the semifinals, in which ten teams performed in front of a packed house composed of all the other teams, as well as students from Emerson, and people from the city of Boston. The finals were held in front of more than 1,500 people at Boston's Majestic Theater.

Although Davidson's team did not advance to participate in the final, they were elated by the experience. Smith, who has participated in more than 25 slams in New York, Charlotte and his hometown New Orleans, said this slam felt special. "Finals was most emotionally rocked I've ever felt in my life," he said. "Everybody there was so hyped about poetry-people were laughing, clapping, crying-just mesmerized by every poet they heard."

Natasha Rivera '12

Slams avoid a structured judging system by selecting each round's five judges randomly. The judges rank each poet's performance on a scale of one to 10 (with decimals strongly encouraged). The lowest and highest scores are dropped, so that the top score possible is a 30.

Though slam poetry is commonly charged with political protest and calls for social change, Smith says the art form has expanded. In addition to pieces focused on matters like addiction and assault, it also includes work of lighter content. For example, Smith recalled one poem about a man who was in love with his beard.

The emotional connection between poet and audience is what draws Smith to spoken word poetry. He explained, "Spoken word is almost more about the audience than about the poet. The hope is that what you perform resonates with them in a way that might not be possible from the page."

He continued, "The best compliment that I get after a show is when someone says, ‘That's how I've been feeling, but I never knew how to put it into words, and you did that for me.' That's what poetry is about for me-being able to connect with people."

James Tolleson '13

CUPSI was not the end of the year's performances for FreeWord. The whole group, including Jessica Hartley '12, Natasha Rivera '12, Rodney Saunders '13, James Tolleson '13, Joshua Arthur '12, Amanda Ottaway '12, and Kelsey Wilson '13, gave a performance to a packed hometown crowd in the Smith 900 Room recently. FreeWord will become a chartered student organization next fall, providing support, structure and community for Davidson spoken-word poets to come.

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,800 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages, giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding Honor Code is central to student life at the college.
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