The Sun Devil Slam Poetry team returned from Boston on Sunday after winning national recognition for poetry excellence, placing third in the semifinal competition of the 2010 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational.
Myrlin Hepworth, a creative writing and English junior, helped lead the team of three other ASU students through a competition at Emerson College.
The team included students Patrick Carroll, Katelain Saunders and Bradisha Fraser and Ed Mabrey, a local poetry enthusiast.
To prepare to compete against talented challengers, the team had to fundraise through events on campus, organize local competitions and participate in workshops to promote its poetic writing skills, Hepworth said.
During the year, the club held poetry slams twice a month. They were competitions to encourage students to participate in teams and raise funds, Hepworth said.
Competitions were held at Madcap Theater on Mill Avenue, and the group held a competition in February to decide which participants would be going to the national level.
“At the end of the night, the top four poets made the team,” he said.
The final four qualifiers prepared for the national competition last week.
“We write poems together, have a couple duets or have a three-person poem, and then we go to competition,” Hepworth said. “In the Boston competition, we had two preliminary bouts, and these determined if you advanced into finals.”
In the first bout, the ASU team beat Yale, Davidson College and Western Illinois University, Hepworth said. In the second round, they beat Boston University and Binghamton University.
It was the Sun Devils’ first year competing, and the team placed third after making it to the semifinal competition.
“I think we did pretty well. We are for sure in the top 10 in the nation,” Hepworth said.
Patrick Carroll, a film and media studies sophomore, said he was excited about how well the team did in Boston.
“It was an incredible experiment. Our leader Ed Mabrey led us there and coached us how to perform and improve our writing,” Carroll said. “It was awesome to win the two bouts and to do so well while getting a chance to perform in front of 200 people in an environment not like the coffee shop scene.”
The experience brought more rewards than just gaining national recognition, Hepworth said.
“We are the first team ever to come out of ASU. It was awesome to do so well and to come back on top,” Carroll said, adding that the creative community was a huge factor. “The final competition went until five in the morning on Saturday night because all the participants came together to share ideas and to network with each other.”
Despite the idea that being surrounded by talented poets might hinder the team’s confidence, it was the opposite for Sun Devil Slam Poetry, Hepworth said.
“We make sure we are focused and make sure we serve the poem the best we can,” he said.
Reach the reporter at asjohn10@asu.edu
