Newtown Youth Give Voice To Poetry

By Nancy K. Crevier

The five-member Connecticut National Youth Poetry Slam Team, including Newtown writers Haley Keane, a senior this year at Newtown High School, and 2006 NHS graduate Emma MacHugh, now a student at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., arrived in Washington, D.C., July 15 for the Brave New Voices 11th Annual International Youth Poetry Slam Festival presented by Youth Speaks. Youth Speaks is the country’s leading spoken word development agency, gathering more than 450 young poets and artists from all over the United States this year.

After competing in three poetry slam competitions held at various venues across Connecticut this past year, Haley and Emma were selected to represent the state, along three other students from around Connecticut. Because the Connecticut team members live far apart from each other, unlike other teams where all members might be from one city, the students performed individually, rather than as a group, at the festival. “We had a few group pieces, but we just didn’t feel we had anything strong enough to do as a group,” said Emma, even though more points are earned through group presentations. Nonetheless, the team finished 14th out of 44 national teams, a result that pleased them.

The preferred term for slam poetry, said Emma, who first got involved through her English class taught by Lee Keylock at Newtown High School when she was a junior, is spoken word poetry. “Spoken word poetry doesn’t really differ from traditional poetry in quality of writing,” she explained. “But it is purposefully accessible to the listener, not veiled in metaphors. With ‘slam’ or ‘spoken word’ poetry you are saying, ‘This is my message and I want to get it across to the audience. I’m explaining a story,’” said Emma.

The July festival in Washington, D.C., was the third time Emma has been to an International Festival. She has become adept at picking out the styles of the different groups, because, she said, each team tends to have their own manner of presenting the spoken word performance.

The festival is not just about competition. Students attend workshops presented by popular slam poets, and this year’s event brought together the young people to discuss the upcoming elections, how they see the youth of America, and voice their ideas on what a new government administration should look like, at a special Brave New Voices Town Hall Meeting. “It was great, just youth talking to youth,” said Emma, “and it was recorded for the 247townhall.org website.”

The “Speak Green” competition at the JFK Center for Performing Arts, though, was where the young women spent nearly 12 hours each day for two days, as the top ten groups and individuals who had moved up through several other rounds competed. “Several of the groups we saw, because we weren’t in the finals, we were just watching, were group pieces. Multiple voices have a lot of impact,” said Emma. The quarterfinals were the events that Emma found most mesmerizing.

“That’s where you see the jewel in the teams that aren’t necessarily doing so well, but have a poem that is amazing. Everyone is equal up there,” she said.

“Both Haley and Emma are fantastic poets,” said coach Lee Keylock, who attended the festival with the team. “Emma has been on a team for three years and this is the first year for Haley, but both did an impressive job,” Mr Keylock said. Emma, he noted, received maximum scores on the two poems she presented at the festival.

“They are both so talented. Emma is a bit more metaphoric in her poetry than Haley, and Haley is just getting better all of the time. Her poetry, very realistic, gets stronger and stronger every year.”

The International Festival has grown into a huge event, said Mr Keylock, who has attended with teams the past three years. This year, he said, HBO also realized what a phenomenon the youth gathering had become and filmed the entire week of workshops, meetings, and competitions. The documentary is scheduled to be aired in January, according to Mr Keylock.

“It is great fun, every year,” he said.

For Haley, her first International Slam festival was an “unbelievable experience. There were nearly 500 poets there and everyone was so enthusiastic about getting the youth voice out into the world.”

She agreed with Emma that the festival is not about the competition. “It’s not about winning,” said Haley. “It’s about having the world get a chance to hear your voice.”

Mr Keylock’s English class was Haley’s introduction to spoken word poetry, as well. “I’ve been doing spoken word poetry for over a year now. Mr Keylock got me interested and encouraged me to try it out.”

Last year, Haley had the opportunity to practice with the Connecticut team, but was quite pleased to be selected to be on the team this year. The group took up donations during the year at slam presentations and took their performances to elementary schools to raise money to go to the festival. “It wasn’t really that expensive, though, I don’t think. We had to take a train from New Haven to New York City, but from there we took a megabus to DC for just $10 a person.” The team did need funds to defray the cost of room and board at George Washington University, where they stayed, she said.

Spoken word poetry can cover a lot of subjects and styles, said Haley. “It’s sort of a mix of traditional poetry and rap. Mine is more toward the poetic side with a performance aspect, I think. It’s about the message you are trying to convey,” she said.

The International Youth Poetry Slam Festival is over for this year, but both young women are carrying forward the energy from the event and looking forward to next year’s festival in Chicago. Because Emma will be past the age limit then, she hopes to be able to go as a coach, while Haley is aiming to represent Connecticut again if she can. “Just getting to know so many people from all over the world is incredible. It’s a great program,” said Haley.