Outsiders’Art
Slam poetry has gotten students who are often bored with how the subject is taught in school excited about the craft.
Alexis Alexander is preachin’ it now, a fist raised to the sky, a head of braided hair swinging to one side. She wears a buttoned-up Che Guevara shirt. A metal-studded belt holds up baggy jeans. It’s a warm Saturday in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in the District of Columbia, and Malcolm X Park is waking up to her poetry.
I want no more push and shove l no more Crips and Bloods l no more animosities brewing up between us l no more empty love l no one else sent up above by a nigga with his finger on the trigger of a gun l I want to love someone and be loved back l but it seems so hard for y’all to understand all of that.
Her teammates on the D.C. Teen Poetry Slam Team nod approval like a congregation giving witness. Alexis and five other high school students have met since the end of March to prepare to face the best youth poets from around the country. They earned spots on the team by besting more than a dozen poets at a local slam. In three days, the team will fly to San Francisco for the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival. No time for celebrating anymore. There are rhymes to...
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Mr. Dominic Geinoski's school was misidentified. He is an advanced placement teacher at University City High School in University City, Mo.
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