By Melissa Alvarez
Staff Writer
It’s that time of year again! The Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement slam league season has begun. The kickoff slam took place at the Franklin Institute on February 21st.
From March 7th until the season’s end in June, the slams will be at the Freedom Theater every friday.
So far SLA Center City has won a round after performing a group poem composed of sophomores Soledad Alfaro, Mali Fenning, and Jasmin Gilliam. The 3 girls wrote a poem together about being sensitive.
Soledad told SLAMedia “It’s a poem about dealing with your emotions and trying to get people to understand who you are. I am super excited for slam league this year, we’re at the freedom theatre and everyone is so talented. It’s gonna be really rad!”
Rad indeed. Students are often known leave slams with a whole new outlook on their surroundings. The poems that students share with the audience can jump from the topic of hair to gang violence.
An inviting part about the poetry movement is the all around positivity. Being an attendee of multiple slams, it’s not uncommon to see students forget their lines because they’re nervous, or some cry from the overwhelming emotion brought up from what they’re sharing, but they are always immediately lifted back up from the snaps of the crowd,
Sophomore Mali Fenning is enjoying her first year in PYPM. She told SLAMedia “The slams are very lively, fun, and not only will you have fun but you’ll learn a lot about culture.”
More and more of Philadelphia’s youth are finding their voices through poetry.
For more information on the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement, go to http://pypm215.org/