HIGH TIDE
Redondo Union High School Redondo Beach, CA March 24, 2017 Vol. XCVII Edition 12
Slam Poets Society
Seniors Bradford, Eden and Leavitt write poetry in order to express their thoughts and feelings by Analise Asaro
Reciting poetry. “I think that all the poetry that people write is for themselves, but in the end it definitely helps other people by letting them know that they’re not alone in the way that they’re thinking,” senior Amanda Leavitt said. PHOTO BY JARRAH MAY.
Senior Sarajane Bradford writes about current events. Senior Amanda Leavitt writes about homophobia and feminism. Senior Cora Eden writes about her feelings. One writes slam, and the other two read their poetry at the Coffee Cartel, but what they have in common is that poetry serves as a way for them to express themselves through an art form. Bradford writes slam poetry, which she describes as “the evolution that poetry has taken into the 21st century.” Slam poetry is a form of free-write poetry that is more similar to rap in comparison to regular poetry. “What I like about slam poetry is that it could be about anything you want it to be and you don’t have to think about the structure as much, even though a lot of times it still has rhythm and rhyme to it. There’s no beat, but you can still feel it when people read it, and when it’s good it has that nice flow to it,” Bradford said. “It’s a very truthful, personal and expressive way to let it all out and create this cool art form at the same time.” Although she has been writing “normal” poetry since middle school, Bradford first had the idea to do slam poetry after listening to YouTuber Prince Ea do it. “I fell in love with all his videos so I wanted to do something similar,” Bradford said. “Now, I take a lot of inspiration from the way
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