The WHHS Poetry Slam team has been a part of the WHHS community for eight years. Led by WHHS English teacher, Kyle Scudder, the team has had much success throughout these few years, bringing home nothing less than gold or silver medals.

Scudder says that this year he hopes to, “keep the tradition alive,” as he prepares for tryouts.

Each year the Poetry Slam team holds tryouts, students interested in joining can sign up on Schoology and choose their times on sign-up genius.

The team is looking for at most six students to compete in this year’s Cincinnati Louder Than A Bomb Poetry Slam (LTAB) competition.

This year’s tryouts were held on Oct. 26 starting at 3:15, where students who chose a time would perform for Scudder. They were judged using the same rubric as the contest, some of the basis of this rubric include delivery and quality of the poems.

As tryouts slowly approached, many Poetry Slam members prepared themselves for this year’s tryouts and look forward to what is to come this season. These members include SENIOR Zoe Cummings and Nola Stowe, ‘24 both student poets who were a part of the Poetry Slam team during the 2020-21 season.

Stowe, who has been a part of the team for four years, says that one of her favorite parts of the Poetry Slam and the contest is, “the community with slam and the energy during slams.”

The Slam Poetry team is not all about competition, it is also about helping students find their own personal poetry style. The community of the Slam Poetry team makes it easy for students to find their own voice and feel supported by fellow student poets.

Though the team competes against each other during the LTAB competition, in their individual performances, the enthusiasm and support for their teammates never stops.

“I love the environment because it pushes me to be better and although there’s a competition element, it always feels like we’re rooting for each other,” Cummings said.

As the year goes on, the hope for the team is to not only help performers find their voices, but to build the team’s confidence and bring home another win.