Slam poetry night featuring Joan ‘Lyric’ Leslie
Seats began to fill at the Javelina Student Engagement Center (JSEC) as students got ready to watch the very first slam poetry event on campus, featuring none other than Joan ‘Lyric’ Leslie herself.
Leslie is a triple threat, juggling her life as an author, a well-known slam poet while maintaining her title as a two-time Queen of the South slam poetry winner.
“I don’t think we’ve ever done a slam poetry event before or anything poetry related, let alone being themed to this celebration,” Office of Student Activities (OSA) Marketing and Social Media Specialist Carmela Martinez said.
This month, students have the opportunity to attend different events around campus to take part in celebrating Black History Month. At a predominantly Hispanic university, students feel it is important to appreciate and focus on every culture and hosting a unique event with a talented poet is a great way to increase student engagement, organizers said.
“She’s a really great poet and since it’s Black History Month I think this was the right choice in selecting someone to represent a community,” senior marketing major Amanda Barrera said.
The slam poetry night was a chance for the OSA to host an event that was different from what has normally been done in the past. Being able to link a creative campus activity with the celebration of Black History Month while also bringing someone in who has a lot of their work themed to the topic was a step in the right direction to get students to better appreciate other cultures.
“I’m hoping students find something new that they like and to really hear Joan’s story and what she has to say because there’s a lot of stuff going on right now and it’s nice to hear it in a different way that we can understand a bit more,” Martinez said.
Slam poetry is very intense, powerful and above all else, emotional. With different heritage months on campus, students are used to trying different foods, listening to other organizations that have members from all across the globe, receiving pamphlets, looking at displays, but this type of event gives students a chance to understand a different culture and history than what they were used to in a different context. They were able to sit back and relax while listening to the rawest form of an individual’s story about the way in which she grew up.
“My background has given me a story to tell. It has allowed me to choose what to write and how comfortable I am speaking on it,” Leslie said.
Less than a month into the new semester, the slam poetry night event quickly caught students’ attention as this was a back-to-school kick off and Black History Month event tied into one. Students who attended ranged from those who had never heard of slam poetry before to those who actually write their own poetry.
“I like poetry a lot and I actually used to write, but I think students came out because they wanted to hear poetry, and I think just being able to listen and watch Joan Leslie perform really affected students by helping them gain more knowledge about everything that happens in other cultures that we wouldn’t know otherwise. If we didn’t have the chance to listen to these kinds of personal stories,” Barrera said.
Leslie hopes that her vulnerability and storytelling creates a space for listeners to want to tell their story in the spaces they feel the safest, even if they are in intimate places. She encourages her audience to ask the right questions and leave inspired to create and strengthen the relationships that we have. Leslie believes in creating deeper and richer relationships through the power of storytelling, specifically one’s own story.
“I want people to know that how they show up is enough. That’s the impact I want to leave. I want them to see me be my whole self and realize there’s nothing wrong with them doing the same thing and embracing it,” Leslie said.
The poet and author leaves students with a message to fully embrace one’s truest form, respect others, but most importantly to be yourself and know that being yourself is okay and it is more than enough.