Katiuana Bennett

Ms. Howard
FRST 101
29 November 2016

Reflection paper: CAE Poetry Slam

The poetry slam kicked off first with a live DJ warming the crowd up. Then there was a
young lady who stood up and rallied that sense of Aggie Pride in the room. She had everyone
chanting I like my A in front of my G ( in front of my G) In front of my I ( I ) In front my E. I
like my Aggie Pride (Pride) I like my Aggie Pride
After that the poetry slam started off with a sacrificial poet his name is Mica. Micas
poem was very moving. You could tell that he was well versed in the art form, so it seemed like a
disadvantage to the other poets to have him go first. Nonetheless he delivered a moving poem
about how death is something you always have to consider in order to be someone great. He was
getting at this idea that many of our great leaders were murdered most likely as a result of their
ideologies. He was insinuating that believing in something requires you to be willing to die for it.
I dont remember who came next I remember there being a lot of shenanigans that
resulted in our host being booed. For starters he kept mentioning that as soon as you started
speaking your time would start, so you didnt have time to introduce yourself and give a whole
spiel you just needed to get your energy right and deliver. It was like three people in a row who
came up there trying to tell the audience what their name was and what the title of their poem
was. One guy took like five minutes out of performance time over a discrepancy about whether
or not he could use a desk during his performance. A lot of it was comedy. It was unintentionally
funny, but it was funny nonetheless. There were several really great poems that I felt didnt get

the scoring they deserved. One young man wrote his poem about violence against black youth.
He told the poem through the perspective of his own death, and what he wouldnt want at his
funeral. In it he brought up points about the grievance for black mothers and the necessity for
black lives matter.
The first place winner wrote a poem about learning to love herself, and the pain of
involving yourself with people who dont respect or value you. The second place winner who I
actually thought should have won, wrote a poem about her brother. She made comparisons to
him and other young black men who had been slain at the hands of police brutality. She wrote it
as a plea for his life which I found extremely powerful. She incorporated song into it as well with
remnants of Nina Simones Black Bird. It was really beautiful. I really enjoyed the slam. I stayed
to the very end. I hope CAE does another one next semester.