2006 London Teenage Poetry SLAM
2006 Community Building Day
The Final
The Journey of Magic - Nick Makoha
Poets Gone Wild – Kingsford Community, Poetry SLAM Club

Poet Coaches for 2006 were:
Charlie Dark
Ebele Ajugbe
Dan Cockrill
Jacob Sam-La Rose
Joe Coelho
Malika Booker
Nick Makoha
Nii Parkes
Sifundo Msebele
Sundra Lawerence

Schools who participated in the 2006 London Teenage Poetry SLAM were:
Breaking Through, Wild Card Entry
Cardinal Pole School, Hackney
Curiad Calon Cymru, South Wales (AWEMA)
Eltham Hill School, Greenwich
Holy Family Technology College, Waltham Forest
Kidbrooke School, Greenwich
Kingsford Community School, Newham
Lilian Baylis Technology School, Lambeth
Lister Community School, Newham
Morpeth School, Tower Hamlets

back | top of page

Young poets from South Wales and across London were limbering up and loosening their vocal cords in a bid to produce a dazzling performance to delight judges at the coveted London Teenage Poetry SLAM Final.

And for the first time in SLAM’s four-year history, the competition had been widened to include a team all the way from South Wales – four finalists from Cardiff and four from Swansea.

All 80 talented student poets were given the chance to perfect their techniques at a pre-training session with professional poets, artists and teachers at Newham’s Lister Community School in Plaistow on 13 May, in readiness for the SLAM Final, which takes place at East London’s Stratford Circus Theatre on 24 June 2006.

Ten teams from schools and organisations across the boroughs of Greenwich, Hackney, Lambeth, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest, as well as South Wales, took part in the Community Building Day, which aims to help build the teenagers’ confidence and improve their public speaking skills in order to better their poetry performances.

Fahro Malik, Executive Manager of Lynk Reach, which organises the London Poetry SLAM, said:

“The Community Building Day provides an opportunity for the competing teams to meet each other and enjoy a range of creative activities, make friends and preview their work before competing in the Poetry SLAM Final.”

The annual London Teenage Poetry SLAM, launched in 2003, is the pioneering project of Peter Kahn, an English teacher from Chicago and Lynk Reach’s Fahro Malik.

20006’s Phase One of the project involved experienced poets, (Artistic Director Jacob Sam-La Rose and Poet Coaches Charlie Dark, Dan Cockrill, Ebele Ajogbe, Joseph Coelho, Nick Makoha, Nii Parkes, Sifundo Msebele and Sundra Lawrence) running intensive workshops in each of the schools taking part to develop this year’s competing teams.

The workshops at the Community Building Day enable the budding poets to learn how to control their nerves, improve their public speaking skills and use a mic, as well as build new friendships.

Inspired by the Hip Hop culture of the 1980s, Poetry SLAM is about bringing poetry to life as a spoken rhythmic performance, with poets free to do their work in any style and on any subject.

Simply speaking, Poetry SLAM is the competitive art of performance poetry where dual emphasis is placed on writing and performance and where poets are encouraged to focus on what they are saying and how they are saying it.

2005 SLAM’s Highest Scoring Team, Newham’s Lister Community School, were flown to Chicago, the original home of Poetry SLAM, where they spent the week performing their winning poetry in schools across the city.

So popular was the prize that organisers once again decided to whisk off the Highest Scoring Team at the 2006 London Teenage SLAM Final on a poetry trip to Chicago.

The London Teenage Poetry SLAM is funded by participating schools, the Jack Petchey Foundation, AWEMA and Lynk Ray, of which Lynk Reach is the charity subsidiary.

Lynk Reach is a dynamic charity, which works in the education, arts and community sectors. Our aim is to advance the education of children and young people aged 0-25 by facilitating and managing a range of innovative projects and by bringing those involved together, building bridges between groups and enhancing community partnerships through learning and creativity. Working with communities as a whole is an integral part of this process. We are committed to developing the wide range of skills and talent to be found amongst young people, particularly in inner city and multi-ethnic areas.

back | top of page

Congratulations to the 2006 London Teenage Poetry SLAM’s Highest Scoring Team, Holy Family College, Waltham Forest, , held on 24 June 2006 at Stratford Circus Theatre. The Most Striking Line Trophy went to Kingsford Community School, Newham. Following the final, held on 24 June 2006, Kingsford made a guest appearance at opening ceremony of  Our Sporting Lives, an Olympics Day for Schools.

The London Teenage Poetry SLAM continues to inspire students year after year. Below are two examples from the 2006 SLAM:

Individual.
Sundra Lawrence, one of our Poet coaches, tells us of the comments from one of her inspired students from Cardinal Pole School in Hackney. Read Siobhan's comments here

In the Community
As a result of the SLAM, Kingsford Community School have started "Poets Gone Wild", an after-school poetry SLAM club which goes from strength to strength!

The SLAM was funded by participating schools and teams, together with a generous grant of £15,500 from the Jack Petchey Foundation. Jacob Sam-La Rose was the Artistic Director for the third successive year.

back | top of page

I was first invited by Jacob Sam-La Rose to be a Poet Coach for the 2004 London Teenage Poetry SLAM. I have since been the poet coach at Holy Family Technology College for three years. This relationship was cemented by the Teacher Liaison for the school, Louise Cowburn. She is an amazing woman and I do not use the term lightly. Every year she generates in people the desire to do their best. She finds fantastic ways to create a clearing were magic can happen. By doing this she makes my job the greatest job in the world, because I get to work with her.

This year through hard work we had the privilege of being the Highest Scoring Team at the London SLAM final at Stratford Circus. I, more than anyone, was shocked! I spent most of that day in a daze when the results were announced. But now that I have had time to reflect on things, I would like to share with you this journey of magic.
I thought that winning is a process that occurs when you wrote your best poem. We tried this the first year and failed.

The second year, I thought that winning was a process that would occur when you have great comradely. We tried this the second year and failed. The second loss seemed harder than the first. If I am honest, I think it was because I had become attached to this school in an almost fatherly way. I remember crying in front of my team, feeling like I had let them down in some way. They wrapped themselves around me and hugged me. This is an image I will never forget.

This year, before the SLAM started, I recall looking over my plans for the year and looking for what was missing that would make a difference. I am told this is what Michael Jordan used to do before each game. He would watch how he had played in previous games and look for what was missing that would make a difference. Pulling out my notes I found scribbled down on my back page my life goals. One line stood out from the rest. It read “I will make better human beings”.

On the 24th of June 2006, Holy Family Technology College were announced as the winner of the 2006 London Teenage Poetry SLAM Final. I can with my hand on my heart say that that is not the day we won. It was in fact four months earlier in a sunny day in March, in a school library, when forty young people where asked if they would like to be better human beings ,and with their eyes closed and hands raised, they chose yes.

As a writer I am privileged to have many wonderful experiences. This year’s teen SLAM is at present my best teaching experience. The seven girls I took with me to Chicago returned as accomplished young adults. They made me feel proud to be their coach. I thank them for helping me bring to fruition one of my life goals. Amongst this number I would have to include Jacob Sam-La Rose the Artistic Director and his counterpart in Chicago, Peter Kahn, Fahro Malik, Project Manager and Producer at Lynk Reach, the Head of English at Holy Family, Anne Beresford.

Nick Makoha, Poet Coach,
Holy Family Technology College, 2006 SLAM

back | top of page

After the success of the London Teenage Poetry SLAM 2006, the Kingsford Community Team (winners of Most Striking Line) decided to continue their writing under the collective name of Poets Gone Wild.

Poets Gone Wild takes place every Wednesday after school. It is a place where students of all ages, backgrounds and abilities come together to participate in an hour long workshop led by Dan ‘The Flying Man’ Cockrill (Poet Coach to Kingsford Community School) and supported by Martin Cook, who has made the whole thing possible.

The last Wednesday of each month culminates in a Poets Gone Wild Poetry SLAM, where students can show off what they have learnt in the weekly sessions. Performers are judged on the quality of writing and their performance. At least one member from last years SLAM Team has the opportunity to sit on the Poets Gone Wild judging panel. The Winner becomes The Poets Gone Wild SLAM Champion, receives a PGW trophy and returns the following month to defend his/her title.

Jacklyn Adeniji is the October Champion.

back | top of page