Every year, for the past 15 years, UNC Wilmington hosts a poetry slam. The slam allows poets from UNCW’s campus and the surrounding community the chance to share their work with fellow poetry lovers.

The poetry slam started off as a small event in downtown Wilmington and has grown in popularity throughout the years. Reading poetry allowed people a chance to release pent up emotions, and that alone is one of the reasons the slam has become so popular.

Though organizing a slam is no easy feat, Maurice Martinez, professor in the Department of Instructional Technology, Foundations and Secondary Education, enjoys every minute of the preparation.

Martinez has always been a poetry lover. For him, the reason for having the poetry slam every year is clear.

“It, poetry, is a vehicle or opportunity of labor and love,” Martinez said.  

The slam was held on April 10, and many people came to read their work. The poets were diverse in both age and experience. Since the slam was open to the community, there was a wide age range of poets. In between poems, host and UNCW student Ricky Smalls entertained the audience and introduced the next poet.

Despite the age differences between the performers, there seemed to be a theme between the poets. Most of the poems were about love, equality, spirituality, hardship and basic human rights. Madison Wellbourne performed her poem, “Dead Girls Walking,” for the first time at the slam. The poem was about Wellbourne’s battle with anorexia and the loss of her adolescence as a result of it.

Some poems had a touch of humor. Deidra Parker wrote a love poem. She talked about wanting a man to fall desperately in love with her and how she wanted him to think about her every minute of the day. The end of the poem took a turn. She noted that the man would love her, and in return, she would ignore his phone calls and call him names.

“What?” Parker asked the audience. “I never said I wanted to fall in love.”

Since the slam is a competition, several judges joined the audience to critique the poems.

            Alex Porco, a judge of the slam, said they were looking for certain criteria.

“We are looking for originality and language, inventive word play and dynamic, dramatic delivery,” Porco said. “It’s not what they are saying but the communication of a strong message.”

The judges found what they were looking for in contestant Jeremy Deal. Deal read three of his own poems including “Code Red Terror Alert,” a piece that dealt with a terrorist holding a poem hostage in exchange for love.

The poem was intense at times. Deal demanded love and questioned what women were looking for by referencing classic Disney romances such as Aladdin and Jasmine and Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.

  Deal was awarded $150 for winning first place at the poetry slam. Nine other poets were given monetary prizes ranging from $25 to $150.

Both Parker and Wellbourne placed in the competition. Parker came in second place, winning $75, and Wellbourne came in seventh place, winning $25.