This is LaJenne’ of Digital Youth Network’s All Access covering Brave New Voices Slam Poetry Festival.  Day three of the festival held the quarterfinals.  These rounds determined who makes it on to day four of the Semifinals. Everything that these poets had to say was thoroughly heard, undoubtedly. The topics ranged from the love of “Warcraft” to the deceiving culture of fraternities and sororities to hating superficial people to why some prefer Sci-Fi to dull and cruel reality we all find ourselves in.

The one part that absolutely everyone is a bit skeptical about is the scoring and it’s only natural to feel that way. Honestly this is art and for someone to put a number no higher than ten on it can be a bit of a downer but what I saw was beautiful, they don’t care about scores. They are there with teams, yes, but they are there to perform their art amongst their fellow peers. They offer each other support regardless of what side of the country they came from. When someone messes up a line EVERYONE in the room offers their support.  No one rejoices in anyone’s loss and everyone participates in the celebration of a win. It truly is one voice.

Once they performed their pieces and the room rang with raw truth and honesty. To get up on stage as they do takes so much courage and for that I give them respect. To speak honestly about ones feelings and emotions exposes one to all, and these spoken word artists do it on the daily. Through their poems you see that they have chosen to tell it EXACTLY how it is.