Slam Poetry is a new club at Alliance High School. Sophomore English teacher Beth Carver put the club together. She said she already knew about Slam Poetry because she student taught in Lincoln and she helped out will the club there. Then AHS Principal Dr. Pat Jones sent her an email about an upcoming competition and she decided to move forward with organizing the club. She said, “Any student could have gotten involved, I just needed them to be 100 percent dedicated.”

Slam Poetry is poetry that is both spoken and preformed. These poems are written by the student and then performed. Students meet to practice all throughout the week. Sophomore Alexis Garrett, a student already involved in the new club, said, “I like poetry and I like expressing myself in front of people and this competition lets me do both.”

Students who join the club will be performing in Omaha on March 24 at a competition called “Louder Than A Bomb,” competing against students from all around the state. Random people pulled from the audience serve as impromptu judges based on the following criteria: poems have to be memorized, must be under three minutes, and cannot contain profanity.

To raise money for the trip, and to get the Slam Poetry club off it’s feet, Ms. Carver organized a fundraiser that has students paying for the opportunity to throw a pie at an AHS teacher or administrator.

There are three jars in the AHS office, one for Principal Dr. Jones, one for history teacher Mr. Terry Hickman, and one for math teacher Mr. Nate Lanik. Students wishing to throw a pie at one of these three can contribute money to his jar. At the end of the fundraiser, whoever has the most money in his jar will have a pie thrown in his face. For every dollar a student puts into a teacher or administrators jar, that student gets his name put into another jar. A student, whose name is randomly chosen from that jar, will get the honor to throw the pie into the “winning” staff members face. AHS students can donate money in the office until March 21. The big event will be March 22 after school in the gym.

In the meantime the Slam Poetry club will continue to practice and prepare for their upcoming trip to Omaha. Those interested in joining the club should see Ms. Carver in room 202.