2008 London Teenage Poetry SLAM
Inaugural Meeting
2008 Community Building Day
2008 London Teenage Poetry SLAM Final
Chicago Dinner
UK Schools Poetry Slam Championship Birmingham - London Champion
Deborah Stevenson on Year Dot
Lammas SLAM Team Leads Group Sessions At Gifted & Telented Poetry Day
Press Coverage

This year’s theme to inspire students’ exploration of ideas is My World, Our World. The SLAM aims to instil a real interest in and understanding of poetry in our students - to show them that poetry is a living, breathing thing, and that it's something they can claim as their own.

Poet Coaches for 2008 are:
Baden Prince Jnr
Dan Cockrill
Jacob Sam-La Rose
Joe Coelho
Malika Booker
Nick Makoha
Sifundo Msebele

Schools in the 2008 London Teenage Poetry SLAM are:
Lister Community School, Newham
Hendon School, Barnet
Kingsford Community School, Newham
Lilian Baylis Technology School, Lambeth
Holy Family College of Technology, Waltham Forest
Kidbrooke School, Greenwich
The Lammas School, Waltham Forest

The Jack Petchey Trophy
For the third year running, the Jack Petchey Foundation have given a generous grant of £15,500 to the London Teenage Poetry SLAM. Lynk Reach would like to thank the Foundation for its continued support.

Highest scoring teams from previous years have been:
2007 - Kingsford Community School, Newham
2006 - Holy Family College, Waltham Forest
2005 - Lister School, Newham
2004 - Haggerston Secondary School, Hackney
2003 - Charles Edward Brooke, Lambeth

Click here to view the 2008 London Teenage Poetry SLAM poster.

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The Inaugural Meeting for the 2008 London Teenage Poetry SLAM was at our Wapping office on the 26 January 2008. This meeting kick-started the SLAM calendar. It aimed to build relationships between Poet-Coaches, Teacher-Liaisons, Shadows and the Lynk Reach Team and ensure that everyone knows what the project consists of and what it requires.

This year's theme to inspire students' exploration of ideas is My World, Our World. The SLAM aims to instil a real interest in and understanding of poetry in our students - to show them that poetry is a living, breathing thing, and that it's something they can claim as their own.

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This year’s Community Building Day took place at Forest Gate Youth Zone on March 29. Students gave up their Saturdays to take part in writing and performance master classes, with the day ending in an open-mic session at which the quality was stunningly high.

Two students were so enthusiastic as to compose a poem in their lunch hour – the piece, entitled ‘Cancer’, brought tears to the eyes of many members of the audience. This was an opportunity for informal consultation with our student poets about future poetry projects.

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The final of the sixth annual London Teenage Poetry SLAM gave the talented young participants a chance to show off the writing performance skills they have developed through the course of the six-month long project. Taking place at Stratford Circus, students from seven schools across London (Lilian Baylis, Kingsford Community School, Lister Community School, Kidbrooke School, Holy Family Technology College, Hendon School and Lammas School), representing five London boroughs (Lambeth, Greenwich, Waltham Forest, Newham, Barnet), showcased their talents, alongside a special guest performer from Chicago—2007 Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic champ Christina Santana—as well as the dance group Unity, who have recently been named World Hip Hop Champions.

The Lammas School in Waltham Forest was named this year’s Highest Scoring Team and will go on to represent the project in Chicago, performing and teaching in schools and a variety of other venues, including being the opening act for a sold-out performance of over 350 people.

Whilst one student exclaimed that there was ‘not a word in the dictionary’ to describe how he felt about being named Highest Scoring Team, another commented that he was ‘ecstatic’ about the prospect of the week-long trip, adding ‘we can use big words, we’re poets now.’ Their Poet Coach, Nick Makoha, commented

‘This is an amazing day, but what really made it happen was the writing’, whilst other students on the team stated that ‘the experience of being onstage gave me so much more adrenalin than being in a fight’

and emphasized that their success was due to teamwork and the ability to ‘glue ourselves back together’ to their success and that the project had ‘broadened our horizons’. The team’s motto was ‘Get the room ready, get yourselves ready and you’re ready for the world’.

l - r: Lynk Reach Team; SLAM Artistic Director, Jacob Sam-La Rose; Senior SLAM winner Andre Francis-Angol

Kidbrooke School in Greenwich were awarded the trophy for ‘Most Striking Performance’. Their offerings involved an array of exciting movement and voice techniques and imaginative use of space, including a section where they invited the entire audience to ‘stand up if [they] still dream’. The judges commented that Kidbrooke ‘came onto and exited the stage as if they owned it’, that the audience could ‘still feel the reverberations once they had come off’ and that the students ‘clearly loved what they were doing’, whilst students from other teams commented on their ability to ‘think outside the box.’

The ‘Most Striking Line’ trophy was given to Hendon School, Barnet, with the judges singling out two lines: ‘Decomposing our love’ and ‘I steal your advice, remix it and sell it others as your own’. One of the judges commented that the latter was something he did everyday, citing his parents as those whose advice he ‘stole.’

Poet Coaches for each team also gave out two individual awards each, for categories such as ‘Most Improved Student’, ‘Most Responsible Student’ and ‘Best Team Player’, whilst all students received certificates of participation. All awards were presented by Andi Smith from Newham Education Department, who commented on the fact that it had been Nelson Mandela’s birthday the day before, remarking that each of the SLAM participants had a ‘little bit of Nelson Mandela inside’ in relation to the potential to change the world through words. Also in attendance was Plaistow North Councillor Johnathan Knott, who expressed the desire for people to ‘stop doing our kids down in this country’ and stated that he could sum up the day’s proceedings in three words: ‘fantastic, awe-inspiring and amazing’. Judging by the frequency of standing ovations for the performances, this seemed to be the general audience reaction.

This year, the theme for poems was “My World, Our World”, encouraging students to tackle subjects such as citizenship, different people sharing the same space, the environment, and similarities and differences between cultures. In addition, they had to perform a second poem on a topic of their choice. In this category, entries dealt with issues such as war, domestic violence, the trials of adolescence, family relationships, abortion and euthanasia.

l - r; pre show pep talk; the judges, Ty, Peter Kahn & Robert Bush; The Highest Scoring Team - Lammas School

For the first time ever, the event also featured ex-SLAM alumni in the shape of the three Highest Scoring Students from the inaugural Senior SLAM: Andre Francis-Angol, Jennifer Perry and Charles Yeboah. The Senior SLAM is the first time alumni have been overtly recognised in this way, helping to extend the legacy of the annual London Teenage Poetry SLAM project. Other such legacy projects include Holy Family’s Spoken Word Club and Kingsford’s ‘Poets Gone Wild’, both run by ex SLAM participants. The SLAM legacy was clearly visible on the day through the multitude of ex-participants who were in attendance as audience members or Shadow Poet Coaches.

The London Teenage Poetry SLAM, now in its 6th year, is an original spoken word and poetry competition, designed to bring poetry to life for hundreds of young people, breaking down traditional stereotypes and presenting poetry as a valid form of expression. The dynamic SLAM format is the hook that draws young people in, creating a thriving creative atmosphere within schools and a collaborative community of young writers. This community spirit was evident in students helping each other out in the events of cases of laryngitis and two students on one team not being able to attend at very late notice, meaning other students had to learn their poems on the train on the way to the event.

When asked if they will be continuing writing and performing poetry, the answer from students was a resounding ‘yes’.

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On Sunday 29th June, a dinner was hosted by Fahro Malik and Jacob Sam-La Rose to celebrate another year's successful completion of the SLAM project and especially in honour of our guests from Chicago Peter Kahn (our senior SLAM judge and poet and teacher) and Christina Santana a young poet. Also in attendance were the Lynk Reach team, Poet Coaches, Teacher Liaisons, shadow poets, alumni, volunteers and friends from this year's SLAM. It was great for everyone to get together and reflect on the project and enthusiasm was expressed by all about SLAM 2009.

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Three participants of the 2008 London Teenage Poetry SLAM, Esther Ufomadu (Kidbrooke), Bola Olalemi (Kidbrooke) and Annie Teriba (Kingsford), travelled to Birmingham on Friday to take part in the first individual UK Schools Poetry SLAM.

There were schools from all over the country taking part and competition was tough, but all three students came away with an award. Esther Ufomanu is now the Under 18's UK Schools Poetry Slam Champion. Bola Olalemi won the Most Striking Lines Award in the Under 18's section. Both these two students are only 14 years old. Meanwhile, Annie Teriba won the Most Striking Lines Award in the Under 15's section.

This is a testament to everyone who works on the London Teenage Poetry SLAM. We are all helping these young poets produce a very high standard of writing and performance poetry. So not only do we want to congratulate the Three poets for doing such an amazing job, but we also want to congratulate all the Poet Coaches, Teachers and everyone else that plays an integral role in making a strong and dynamic writing community that is growing stronger every year.

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Year Dot follows 15 young people as they embark on what they hope will be their life-changing new year. They have put their lives online and need your help to help them achieve their aspirations for the year.

Visit their profiles to find out how you can help and check out their latest videos and more at www.yeardot.co.uk. Year Dot will be on your TV screens later this year on Channel 4.

Deborah Stevenson shadow to Holy Family College has been followed by Year Dot cameras click here to watch here dairies.

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Fahro Malik, Lynk Reach CEO, Co-Founder and Executive Producer of the SLAM recently spent a day at Lammas, hosting a poetry day through the Gifted and Talented strand with students from Connaught, George Mitchell and Leytonstone schools.

She commented ‘The group sessions being led by the Lammas SLAM team were really fantastic and a very good template for peers teaching peers and supporting each other really positively. They managed to bring at least five young people who seemed passive out of their shells.’

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The 2008 London Teenage Poetry SLAM has been featured on the following website(s) and newsprint(s), please click on the links below to go to the webpage:

Colourful
SecEx

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