Trojan Tribune
Poets on the MoveTuesday, May 22, 2012 By By Maria Teresa Hernandez
“An Evening of a Spoken Word” poetry contest was created specifically to give young poets the opportunity to share their poetry and compete against each other by using one of the most powerful means, words. Last year on November 23, the very first competition was held between Salinas, North Salinas, Alisal, and Alvarez in the Salinas High Theater. After the first competition, Michael Roddy, one of the people involved in the creation of this contest, was determined not to let the flow of poetic creativity run dry. As a result, this year on Thursday April 19 “Evening of a Spoken Word: Part II” took place. “The ‘Evening’ event, like most good things, is the result of many good people making a decision to do something good for the community,” stated Roddy. From Alisal, these people include Joanne Collins, Vicki Barone, Jane Albano, and Ana Gutierrez; with their cooperation, the “Evening” was created. It all started when Barone was still teaching at La Paz Middle School. She took several of their students to the Salinas Library to be part of a poetry workshop and from that Teen Salinas Speaks(TSS) was created. Barone saw poetic talent in some of their students and encouraged them to keep on writing. Once Barone transferred to Alisal, she, along with many of her students from La Paz, brought TSS and their poetic interest with them. Alisal’s poetic flame was kindled by the creation of Literature Live, an event that is now held twice a year in the Amphitheater where students go on stage and recite poetry, short stories, or mini plays. Alisal’s librarian, Joanne Collins, and library technician, Dulce Neri, organize Literature Live with the help of English teachers such as Gutierrez, Barone, and Albano who judge the competition. The first time Literature Live took place was in 2008. “We created Literature Live to showcase these students’ talents and to promote this type of literacy,” said Collins. There are normally three categories the poems are divided into: long poems, short poems, and foreign language poems. The participants are judged for both the structure of their poem(s) and their performance on stage; the top three poets for each category receive prizes. Since its creation, Literature Live has attracted bigger audiences throughout the years. Senior Maria Teresa Hernandez, has been participating in Literature Live since her freshman year, “Things have definitely changed since the first time I competed, the number of poets participating have been increasing ever since and the competition is much more intense,” said Hernandez. With so much poetic talent surging at Alisal, it was only a matter of time before the “Evening” was created. Roddy, the program coordinator for the district, decided to create a poetry competition in which all the schools in the district would participate. “I had seen poetry competitions elsewhere and thought they were exciting, especially when students were being overwhelmed with testing. To have students write and perform poetry seemed to be an exciting thing to do, and was really at the heart of the meaning of literature,” said Roddy. Thus, the Evening of the Spoken Word was created. The first time the competition was held, the four schools from the district were competing for the trophy. Eight poets represented Alisal: juniors Xavier Mabalot, Eduardo Velaquez, Adriana Reyes, Alex Avila, Roxandra Mendoza, Melina Corea and seniors Robert Valencia, and Maria Teresa Hernandez. Corea won first place with her poem “Beautiful” and Maria Teresa Hernandez won second place with a Spanish poem titled “Mujeres. At the end of the night, Alisal won first place and brought the trophy home with them. The tables turned around during the “Evening of a Spoken Word: Part II” when North Salinas High took the trophy this time. For the “Evening: Part II” only three of the four schools participated; Evert Alverez decided not to participate. For an “Evening of a Spoken Word: Part II” the judges were Marc Cabrera, a Salinas native and Alisal alumni, poet, and writer for The Monterey Herald, Garland Thompson, a poet and actor who works at The Salinas Library; and Elliot Roberts, professor emeritus at MPC and poet. During the first competition, Christopher Rendon and Andres Aranda both tied for third place; this time, however, Rendon ranked first place with his poem called "My Dear Beautiful Grandma" and Aranda took second place with a combined score of this two poems “Her” and “Thoughts to my Brother.” Rendon said, “At the last minute my poem came together and the poem was about my grandma who recently passed away on March 6 of this year and how much she was apart of my life and how I try to reconcile with her passing.” Rendon and Aranda brought a new category in to the competition the second time around; a combined poem. Both of these creative poets put their minds together to write a single poem that, according to the judge Marc Cabrera, “it had the highest score of the night.” This time, the cash prizes consisted of $100 for first place, $75 for second place, $50 for third, and $25 for each honorable mention. Money for the first event was provided by Mayor Dennis Donohue and this time the money came from Teen Salinas Speaks and the Alisal Rotary. Alisal’s Adriana Reyes won an Honorable mention that night. While it might seem a bit disappointing for the Alisal poets that they did not win first place again, they were not sore losers. “I don’t feel surprised that we lost the second time. I felt that we had great poetry but we didn’t deliver it with as much passion as we did the first time. Our competitors from North Salinas High did a great job in both the delivery and the structure of their poems,” said Mabalot. Plans are already made for next year’s sessions of the “Evening.” Roddy stated, “The next poetry event, The Evening of the Spoken Word III will take place in late November 2012, at the Salinas Performing Arts Center, and Evening IV will take place in April.” |