The trees leafing out over Caponi Art Park and Learning Center in Eagan signals the opening of its season. If that inspires you to write a sonnet, well, the young organizers of the park's Poets in the Park Teen Poetry Slam on May 13 might encourage you to get a bit more current.
"It's not like Robert Frost or any of the old poetry. Things don't have to rhyme," said student poetry slam organizer Avery Koester, 17, of Eagan. "Whether or not you fell asleep in your high school English class, there is something about slam poetry ... that doesn't have anything to do with traditional rules and boundaries.
"It's kind of the next generation of poetry. It's fast. It's exciting. I think it is edgy. It just kind of jumps across boundaries and borders."
Both Koester and fellow organizer Lauren Schwark, 18, of Eagan, said they fell in love with slam poetry after watching performances on YouTube.
"It was kind of just stumbling on the art form online." Koester said. "This whole new world opened up. Tapping into that culture is super cool. It's my passion."
"A lot of slam poetry is activism," Schwark said. "The world can be changed by what you have to say. I think that is what people are most drawn to in slam poetry. I was really into the idea that your words could change things about your life. Before I just thought of poetry as 'two roads diverged in a yellow wood.' I was surprised at the force [of slam poetry]."
Teens can bring three poems to read at the event, during which random audience members are asked to judge. "That's the fun part of the event," said "slam master" Cynthia French of Little Falls, who has been emceeing the spoken word poetry competition for seven years. "It's fast-moving, interactive."
The teens, she said, write about everything -- the weather, religion, spirituality, friends. She likes to tell students, "You don't have to write about things bigger than you are."
