For the past seven years, the Los Altos High School Slam Poetry Team has competed in the annual Unified Poetry Slam, a Bay Area competition for team poetry. However, the cancellation of the competition brought the Slam Team to a state of uncertainty.
“That was kind of a bummer because the competitive spirit of those slams has created such a wonderful community for our team,” Slam Team Adviser Jonathan Kwan said. “In the five or six years that we competed, we won the event three times.”
The Unified Slam served as a structural goal for the team in past years. The slam poetry team would meet and prepare a lineup of poems with collaborative writing sessions and workshops. However, Youth Speaks, an organization dedicated to spoken word performances and the host of the competition, shifted the Unified Slam to be more individual-focused rather than a team showcase.
“Without a local competition, we can not commit to creating a team and fundraising thousands of dollars every year to go to national competitions,” Slam Team Adviser Carrie Abel Shaffer said. “You can’t take a team that’s never been onstage to a national competition.”
Without the Unified Slam on their calendar, along with the dwindling number of members left after last year’s graduation, the team is unsure of how to move forward.
“It was a place where we could share our poetry and connect with other people in the Bay Area,” former member senior Juliana Baltz said. “I really loved the people in the team. The competitive nature really encouraged people to put their utmost effort into it. It’s just sad. Our main competition is gone, and our team is kind of gone.”
“I don’t want to say we’re never going to have a team again,” Abel said. “But if there is no local competition, there’s nothing to do with the team.”
Abel, Kwan, and remaining team members have discussed potential partnerships with nearby schools or any poetry clubs to keep its competitive spirit and venue alive. Kwan also places emphasis on the school’s annual Freshman Poetry Slam, which the advisers hope will inspire new members and grow the next generation of poets. Despite the team’s uncertain future, they aspire to continue what they do best: write, perform, and connect through poetry.
“There are always students interested in creative writing,” Kwan said. “And as long as we have institutional structures like the annual poetry slam, there’s always going to be a place on stage for Los Altos students to be able to express themselves.”
