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The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

Together We Slam keeps slamming

Together+We+Slam+keeps+slamming

On Jan. 11 of 2012, eighth graders Sarah Stuetz and Tom Jara performed slam poetry in front of the PUSD Board of Education. After less than three months of practice, Jara was comparing the moral circumstances of gang members, the Taliban and your average Piedmont student, while Stuetz was playing with the idea of a broken record being fixed to promote self confidence and expression.

On Jan. 28 of 2016, co-presidents of PHS club Together We Slam and seniors Tom Jara and Sarah Stuetz respectively performed “America” and “Confessions of a Well-off White Girl” at the Piedmont Appreciating Diversity Committee’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration. Two months later, school board members were still singing praises about the performance to PMS elective teacher John White, who first introduced his students to slam poetry.

Together We Slam [TWS] has come a long way since being founded by Stuetz and Jara in 2014. They have performed at Yoshi’s with well-regarded Bay Area jazz band Mingus Amungus, mentored West Lake Middle School sixth graders, hosted National Poetry Slam champion Marc Bamuthi Joseph as a speaker on campus in cooperation with Voice Cooperative, competed at the 2015 Youth Speaks Unified District Poetry Slam and received grants from PADC.

These developments all started in White’s public speaking class, and in the slam poetry unit he introduced. White had no prior experience with slam poetry, but had the class watch performances online and guided them in beginning to craft and perform poems.

“Because I don’t always have a really clear curriculum, I have the ability to fill in holes that are sometimes missing in an education for students,” White said. “One thing that I feel like is missing is the sort of sacred ritualized space to tell the truth, a safe place where your story and your truth is honored.”IMG_0500 copy

White found that slam poetry was the perfect solution to give a voice to his students.

“It’s not just about telling the story, it’s about people being vulnerable and being willing to stand up and reveal themselves, which then helps support being a good public speaker,” White said. “This is liberation education: freeing people to be themselves.”

In 2014, White, Stuetz and Jara joined with Learning Center teacher Korynne Headley to form TWS. Initially, the group was small.

Now, with juniors Bryn Lawson and Krysia Olszewska and several occasional members, the group meets every Wednesday during lunch in room 42, where they share poetry to receive criticisms and comments from the group.

“It’s inspiring, it’s my pick me up, it’s my inspiration and my constant reminder of why I do what I do — it’s not because I love to answer emails and get up before eight o’clock, it’s because listening to young people gives me hope and excitement about where the future is heading,” Headley said.

TWS members have shared their poetry at open mics, usually at those hosted by Youth Speaks, a San-Francisco based spoken word organization, in SoleSpace, a Telegraph Ave. shoe store.

“It’s very casual, people are sometimes writing up until the point where they perform,” Stuetz said. “It’s not polished, and you might stumble over your lines or forget part of it, but it doesn’t really matter cause it’s just getting it out and having it heard.”

At competitions like Youth Speak’s Unified District Poetry Slams, which TWS will attend in San Francisco on April 28, the most powerful poetry tends to come from hard lives, Jara said. So instead, TWS members’ poems tend to be more philosophical and contemplative, Stuetz said.

“It’s really poetry that will shock you. Written down poems you have to reread and think about, slam poetry is you’re gonna get it the first time because it’s gonna delivered to you in that way,” Jara said. “It’s kind of very overwhelming, which is both amazing and intimidating at the same time, because they basically scream about very serious issues in your face, which makes you really open up your eyes and think about the world around you. It’s emotion.”

Jara prefers open mics as a way to avoid having to tailor his work to certain expectations in competition.

“Every time I go on stage, I say, ‘Poetry is just your story and thank you for listening. This is my two cents, they’re not greater than anyone else’s two cents. Still two cents. Here’s what I have to say.’”

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