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By Rukhshona Islamova – LHS News

Lincoln High Slam Poets are competing at state at the Louder Than a Bomb Great Plains competition tonight, April 24th in Omaha at the Holland Center for Performing Arts beginning at 7 p.m.

“The 2018 team has incredible, natural talent,” Slam Poetry Team sponsor Deborah McGinn said. “They’re the strongest team I have seen since the 2013-14 championships.”

The team is also the largest slam poetry team in Nebraska consisting of 11 poets and 11 editors. Senior Anthony Delaney attributes this fact to the sense of community the team has.

“Slam poetry is most definitely a community within itself but one that is highly inclusive and open minded,” Delaney said. “Every bout is a learning experience, and every poem is a work in progress that is being guided by the whole community much like the poets themselves.”

Other than the size difference senior Karina Hinkley doesn’t believe that Lincoln High’s slam team differs too much from the other schools’ teams.

“I mean, I like us better, but the main principles of Slam should apply to teams everywhere.” Hinkley said. “Trust, compassion, and understanding are some of the most important things.”

Within the slam poetry team the poems are written by the poets and then revised and perfected with the help of the other poets and the teams editors.

“They do not write about stereotypical teenage angst as much as they write about world issues, culture, diversity and individual perspectives,” McGinn said. “They are just way beyond their years in their writing and delivery. The success truly depends on the students’ compositions, gifts and individual strengths in writing and performing.”

Junior Katherine Lester is an editor on the slam team and says her and fellow editors go about revising in different ways. Lester said that during the writing process she mainly focuses on helping the poets clarify their ideas and improve their  poem structures.

“It’s important to hear the poem spoken, because that’s how it will be performed.” Lester said. “Editing a slam poem is different from editing a page poem in that respect,” Lester said of editing during competition season versus the off season.

Since they do write about such serious topics the team members say that it is important that all of the members trust each other so they can be completely honest in their poetry. The team won both of their first bouts, held at UNL, which qualified the team for semi-finals. These were held in Omaha at the Joslyn Art Museum on April 17th.

This win gave the slam poetry team exactly one week to prepare for the finals. The preparation consisted of perfecting the individual poems, which will be performed by seniors Jack Buchanan, Anthony Delaney, Karina Hinkley and a fourth person that will be determined based on the success of the first three rounds.

Sophomore Joanna Calel, junior Erica Leon, and freshman Samantha Roblyer are all potential candidates for that fourth round position. Along with practicing individual poems, a whole new group piece was written.

The group piece titled, “Did you know our country bombed Syria?” was written by Buchanan, Delaney, Leon and Calel and will also be performed by them.

The finals start at 7 p.m., and Lincoln High students and staff are encouraged to bring together family and friends to cheer on the team.

If you cannot make the actual event you can watch the livestream on the Louder Than a Bomb Great Plains YouTube channel.

Lincoln High will be battling against Lincoln East, Omaha Northwest, and Omaha Westside for the state championship. Although winning is always a goal and is exciting, the team isn’t just focused on that.

“The team doesn’t just prepare to win,” McGinn said. “They do it to have fun and produce good content to the best of our abilities.”

The team has two coaches, [that are also poets] Dr. Stacey Waite and Gina Kepplinger, and McGinn as their sponsor.