English Teacher Mr. Kay founded the Philadelphia Slam League at SLA in 2006 during the first year the school was open.

The club was a lunch time club for two years, and it became an after school activity during the third year SLA was open.

Poetry Club began with 6 schools competing in the drama studio at our school, and then it was moved to the Franklin Institute the following year.

After the first year, the amount of participating schools jumped from 6 to 16.

Greg Corben was the man who started Philadelphia Poetry Movement in Philadelphia, which includes the competitions Philadelphia poetry students compete in.

“There was no place without alcohol for kids to perform poetry at before” Mr. Kay quoted Greg Corben’s reason to start the Poetry Movement.

Check out some of the student poets at SLA’s poems in the making.