Kimberly Banks, who secured a top spot along with Desmarie Jackson, kept the crowd on the edges of their seats throughout the 8th Annual Spoke’N’Heard Poetry Slam.
Raw emotion on display at the Arts Center!
Over a dozen poets from Merced County took part in the 8th annual Spoke ’n’ Heard Poetry Slam.
Event organizer Marcy Poe reads a personal poem.
Over a dozen poets converged on the Merced Arts Center on Saturday as part of the 8th annual Spoke ’n’ Heard Poetry Slam. Run by the Hip Hop Movement club from the University of California, the annual slam brings together established poets from around Merced County and the surrounding area, as well as first-time performers looking for an accepting venue to express often sensitive subjects.
Hosting this year’s Spoke’n’Heard Poetry Slam was last year’s champion Tanisha McClain.
This year’s first and second place winners were Kimberly Banks and Desmarie Jackson, who took home a $100 and $50 cash prize respectively for their 10 minutes of poetry each. Both spoken word
performers brought the crowd and community judges to the edges of their seats.
Event organizer Marcy Poe was excited to be bringing the event back to Downtown Merced as a way to help expand the poetry scene in Merced.
“For me poetry is a release,’ Poe explained. “The hypothesis of a situation, and the eventual diagnosis or conclusion of a situation. Its therapy, and it’s the documentation of a poet or writer’s life and the poetry evolves along with the poet.”
She went on to say that “poetry can absolutely connect people with others and always does.
“It opens up the potential for an audience member to relate and therefore have healing or understanding to a complex circumstance.”
For more information about upcoming events hosted by UC Merced’s Hip Hop Movement, the
club can be reached by email at [email protected].