Beat poetry slams Utah State

The Asia Project slammed out poetry with both serious and lighter vibes Friday for Slam Poet Night.

Jake Taylor, a senior studying social studies composite teaching, was the emcee for Slam Poetry Night.

Utah State University’s arts and lecture department hosted the event. This year marked Slam Poetry Night’s third year, Taylor said.

“As far as the student openers who came tonight, they’re just people that we’ve met before that have performed at Po-Bev or that we know that are just into the poetry scene, and we asked them to perform,” Taylor said.

Sarah Winder, a junior studying broadcast journalism, and the arts and lectures director was in charge of planning the event.

“Slam Poetry Night is a great way to bring a new culture to Utah State,” Winder said. “Po-Bev is a good way to let students perform and have an open mic, but it’s kind of evolved into a music scene, and I think not very many people perform poetry there. However, I think poetry is super important to Utah State, and I’m glad this event can help provide that.”

Those who attended the event sat down to treats and listened to five openers, all USU students.

However, the main attraction at the event was The Asia Project, a duo of brothers who combine poetry with music. The pair travels the country.

Asia Samson, a member of The Asia Project, said he loves the self-expression that poetry offers as well as being able to connect with many people through poetry.

“Literacy and poetry is such an amazing art form,” Samson said. “I think it’s culturally amazing. People can talk about so many different things with poetry from life to culture to whatever. Having these kinds of events are a great way to express yourself, especially when this many people show up. It’s amazing.”

Samson performed a number of his own poems, inspired by experiences in his own life, including the loss of his sister and his history with cancer.

Both Winder and Taylor see the benefits that these types of events can bring to USU students.

“At university and especially at Utah State where the poetry scene is growing, especially the spoken-word poetry scene … there’s a lot of people who are interested, but there’s not an outlet or a venue for people who have never seen it or (for) performing themselves,” Taylor said. “Things like this give people that outlet even more than Po-Bev does, because Po-Bev has a lot more music than probably a lot of us would like. We’d like to see more poetry.”

Shyanne Hatch, a senior studying history education, was in the audience at the event.

“It was great,” Hatch said. “I loved it.”

Hatch said while the event was a great way to get students out and involved, it was also interesting to hear the variety of topics covered.

With the turnout of this event, Taylor would like to see students take the initiative to continue the tradition of Slam Poet Night and the overall poetry scene at the university.

“Honestly, me and a lot of the people that do it are leaving,” Taylor said. “We’re all seniors, so students are going to have to take the initiative themselves. There’s plenty of students that we know that still like poetry and perform poetry at PoBev. But what really needs to happen is the creation of a solid club that does poetry like this.”

Winder sees an event like this as something any USU student can relate to.

“I think students need to come to events like this because, one, I think it will surprise them how much it will connect to them,” Winder said. “I think people sometimes get scared by poetry because they think it will be boring or slow or they don’t quite understand it, but if they were to come, I think they would laugh, they would cry, they would feel the spectrum of emotions, and I think it would be great for them.”

— sadiejherrera@aggiemail.usu.edu