New clubs and activities are always popping up in the school. One that is new to even the district is a Poetry Slam club.

Lawrence Free State’s Poetry Slam club just visited to try to advertise how great the club is. They also went to the Blue Valley District because they and Olathe are the only two districts in the area without any teams.

The team first performed in the Creative Writing class and then after school. Several people attended after school who had never heard of slam poetry before. Now, students are excited about starting the new club next school year.

“It will be different than Writing Club,” Cindy Roth, English teacher, said. “Though there are some of the same ideas [as Writing Club], slam poetry will have competitions to go to.” Roth will be the sponsor for the club next year

A Poetry Slam club consists of students reading their own poems that can be about many different topics such as social issues and personal issues. There are two competitions, one in the spring and one in the fall. The competition is called “Louder than a Bomb” and it originated in Chicago.

Competitions include people performing a three-minute poem and getting scored from 0-10. There is a preliminary round, semi-finals and finals. A different type of poem people sometimes perform is one where four people do a poem together. It is orchestrated to where all four know what they say when they say it.

Lawrence Free State also visited Frontier Trail to show what the middle schools could be doing as well. The middle school level competition is called “Light the Fuse.”

A main focus in the Poetry Slam world is community. “It’s about all of us coming together and sharing our stories,” said Brandon Wolak, sponsor of Lawrence Free State’s team.

Roth plans to invite other schools to South to have open mic nights. “It just brings together all different types of schools,” Roth said.