Framingham High Seniors To Battle At 18th Annual Poetry Slam

In full transparency, the following is a press release from Framingham Public Schools, submitted to SOURCE media for publication. (stock photo)

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FRAMINGHAM – Thursday, April 27th at 7:30pm, Framingham High School will hold the final round of its 18th annual senior class poetry slam.  A “slam” is a competition between teams of poets who perform their own original work, bringing poetry off the page and onto the stage in a gloves-off, no-holds-barred verbal boxing match with judges chosen randomly from the audience.  This FHS slam began as a class project in 2004, and quickly turned into a school-wide, and community-wide event. 

In 2022, the poetry slam joined together with the FHS Fine and Performing Arts Department to create a celebration of FHS students’ creative talents, the “Spring into the Arts” Festival at the FHS Library.  The festival features FHS student visual artists, musicians, and poets. 

The Spring into the Arts Festival is free and open to the public and will be held at the Framingham High School Library, 115 A Street, Framingham, MA, 01701. 

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For this one-night event, the FHS Library will transform into a gallery from 6pm to 7:30pm, featuring artwork created by FHS Art students.  Music will be provided by FHS instrumentalists and Tonal Eclipse, the FHS a capella group.  At 7:30pm, the slam poets will take over for the Class of 2023 Poetry Slam finals.  This event is generously sponsored by the FHS PTBO.  

“When I began teaching poetry slam to my students in senior English classes 19 years ago, I never imagined that it would grow to become an FHS tradition,” said Framingham High School Librarian, Alison Courchesne. “The Poetry Slam has become a rite of passage and an important part of the culture of FHS, and we’re so excited to work with our Arts colleagues to highlight FHS students’ voices.”   Preliminary and semi-final rounds of the poetry slam, consisting of 343 members of the class of 2023, were held at FHS from April 12th  to 14th to determine which teams would move on to the finals.  The top three teams at the finals will take home cash prizes and, more importantly, bragging rights. 

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Class of 2023 Poetry Slam Finalists 

Basement Dwellers
Larissa Almeida
Kara Hatalsky
Antonio Machado
Althea Norcross

Cheekbones and Nick
Maya Bishop
Rocco Capuzzi
Nick Leal

Goldilocks and the Rizzly Bears
James Kagoda
Amelia Klippenstein
Mike Pinto
Lyia Young

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Jam JJAR
Jaelany Ramos
Jiana Saade
Aracelly Sanchez
Ruby Alberti

LAKE Superior
Leticia Viana
Angela Middleton
Keira Richard
Emma Mackay

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Poetry J.A.M.
Joaquin Erasquin
Annapurna Chakraborty
Molly Bronner

Poetry Slanza
Cameron Norris
Olivia Palmer
Emily Spalding
Jenna Saxon

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Stanzas
Annaliese Edman
Madi Jones
Chloe Mills

WHAM!
Tom Pereira
Hannah Sjostedt

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