By ASIA EWART
Staff Writer
On Thursday, Oct. 31, the Saint Rose English Club celebrated Halloween in an extra spooky and unique way. The club hosted a Spooky Slam, an open mic and poetry slam event, in Albertus 369 from 4:15 p.m. to 6 p.m. English and non-English majors alike were invited to bring their best spooky poetry, or even the works of other poets, to read for the open mic portion. The slam part of the evening invited competitors to come prepared with three original poems and compete for the title of slam winner. The generous e-board provided candy, cookies, and apple cider for those in attendance, and even had the support of a few English professors who showed up.
“The planning process was quick; once we decided that we wanted to have a slam and open mic that were Halloween-y, it was just left to decide when,” explained junior Alex Sherman-Cross, who is a member of the club and served as the evening’s MC. “We ended up deciding to go for actual Halloween, in the hopes that people would dress up, and for a later time when most people are done with class by. Originally, it was going to be on Nov. 1, but we thought people might be out of the spirit by then.”
“We decided at one of the early meetings that we were going to do something like this,” president Rachel Bolton further explained “I was very happy with the turn out. I was not expecting that we would get so many people, and also there were people who were not in English Club.”
The open mic was well received; it began with a reading from Dr. Barbara Ungar, and followed with a steady flow of attendees reading both original poetry and famous pieces, among them “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe and choice Emily Dickinson works. The slam portion saw four students – John Slagg, Kayla Furnia, Zachary Caton, and Samson Pena – bring their poems to a panel of five volunteers: students Jessica Lamoureaux, Barbara Kaiser, Andy Gilchrist, Zach Williams, and Jenna VanWely. All four participants were rated on a scale of one to 10 after performing two poems each, and the two highest made it to the final round, facing off against each other. It came down to Caton and Pena, with Caton ultimately being the victor.
“I’m thrilled that we had so many people come to listen, and that so many people stayed for the whole event,” said Sherman-Cross. “It gives me confidence that we could host other events like this, or other “English Major-y” events, and have people actually turn up.”
“I would sure love to have Spooky Slam be an annual thing,” said Bolton, in consideration of hosting another poetry event “Maybe we will we have one for Valentine’s Day.”
With successful events such as Spooky Slam and a group of hardworking club members, the English Club is well on its way to becoming a noted part of the Saint Rose community.
