Even though the LHS Slam Poetry Team has won the last two state championships, their goal isn’t necessary to win a third. “It would be nice, but our goal is to take the writing process seriously and be writing constantly,” Slam Poetry sponsor and English teacher Deborah McGinn said. The team practices after school every Friday, they are going to compete around the state with other school. They represent LHS while competing with other schools and they improved the reputation of LHS by winning state last year. There are many creative and imaginative poets in Slam poetry who are returning going to compete again this year for LHS this year.
“Returning poets are senior Tiauna Lewis, junior Camille Harrah, sophomores Melissa Bornstein, and Anna Pape,” McGinn said. This season should be a great season considering the previous two. In addition to McGinn, there are also many other adults involved in Slam Poetry. For example, Louder than a Bomb Founder Matt Mason is the Omaha coach, Sam Woog is the Slam Poetry Assistant Sponsor, Marilyn Schaffer the Slam Poetry Leader, Dayna Johnson the Community Leader, Charlene Neeley the Community Leader, Geri Roberts, Jerry McGinn, and lastly Mike Pitts is the Muffin Man.
There are many more important people in slam poetry, but these are the main supporters of Slam Poetry. The Current Slam Poetry team has 37 members. They meet in room 300, after school to practice for their poems and get feedback from people. “We have 22 student editors who will be learning and who will be a part of the slam poetry community. They will serve as editor to the team and providing written and verbal feedback,” McGinn said. They practice to be better writers and to reach their goals “until we get at least a piece or two or three per student that is revised, powerful, and specific in detail in message and theme,” McGinn said. “We want to have fun” Slam poetry members show such focus, enjoyment, and effort in their work.
It shows how much they love the program. The team had their first competition this season at UNL on March 17, 2015. They won third place after a tie between North Star and Waverly. “I have a Captain America persona piece actually that I’m performing,” Slam team member and freshman at LHS Karina Hinkley said. “As of right now, it’s called, ‘If The U.S. Failed America,’ It’s alot of fun,” Hinkley added. Everyone had beautiful poems and how many points each teams gets doesn’t matter, because everybody won in some kind of way. McGinn sells healthy snacks to students and staff to help fund the team.
Bus transportation costs $600 for each away meet in Omaha (there are three), and the team must raise the money themselves, because it is not a recognized NSAA activity. This may change in the future. Other costs include a $300 entry fee and food for evening trips. You can help by donating through LPS’s Fund-a-Need program. Visit the website: http://flps.fund-it.org and click on the Search Needs link. Choose Lincoln High from the dropdown menu, and click the Search button, then the Grant Proposal link. On the next page, you can enter the amount you’d like to donate.