The Maple Street Journal, W.R.I.T.E Club and Poetry Club met on Feb. 10 for their annual poetry slam event in room 3714. About 20 members attended, and nine performed their poems.

Poems read included themes of imperfections, nostalgia and youth.

Senior Claire Bradford, event coordinator of W.R.I.T.E. Club and president of Poetry Club, helped schedule the event and coordinate among the clubs.

“A poetry slam, traditionally, is a competition where poets come up and read their poems in a performance style, so it involves a lot of audience reaction,” Bradford said. “But for our club, we forget the competition part. We just do poetry reading.”

Bradford expressed that the poetry slam went a lot better than she expected.

“It was really a supportive environment,” Bradford said. “I think people were applauding after each performance. People were respectful when people were reading, being quiet, being attentive to whoever was performing.”

Junior Aiden Gross attended and presented his poem.

“I was more excited to hear other people’s poems than to even present my own, because I’m excited to see what other people’s thoughts are,” Gross said. “I thought it was very accepting and interesting.”

Gross’s own poem centered around a theme of self-identity and making decisions.

“[My poem] started from a poem about decisiveness to a poem about a bunch of things happening, and then to a poem about myself and being grounded in the present and focusing on the positive,” Gross said.

After annually hosting a poetry slam since sophomore year, this is Bradford’s last poetry slam before graduating.

“This experience in particular, this year, really made me want to continue participating in poetry slams in the future,” Bradford said. “I really hope that other students who are there, either as performers or audience members, will continue to pursue poetry, watching it and writing it.”

Follow future events and announcements of these clubs on their respective Reminds: @msj25, @bellairepo and @bhswrite22.