CUPSI

This last weekend I had the immense pleasure of attending the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational competition for both the finals and semi-final rounds as a member of NYU's organization (spoiler: we won) and got to witness some extraordinary poetry done. The interesting thing about the competition was the plain variety of brilliant writing and performance that went into these poems, all of which were able to completely memorize their audiences in 3 minutes or less and some to the point where they received complete standing ovations and there was an unmistakable energy in the room as performers crafted these gorgeous surgeon instruments and poured out their hearts onto the stage. There was one team, The University of Virginia Commonwealth, which made huge impact at both Semi-Finals (with both a hilarious group piece attacking stereotypes called "Stigma" and a lyrical epic by their resident Rob-a-Loo about black discrimination) and Finals where they closed their last round with a sensational a Capella rap that was reminiscent of the Slim Shady EP. Most of the other schools were conventional in unconventional ways. Suffice to say, NYU's team managed to blow minds with brilliantly crafted (group pieces were highly inventive and mesmerizing) poems and unfathomably profound statements. My favorite, personally, was performed by Brown University's Paul Chang, and it was read through the viewpoint of a mentally disturbed ice cream man forced out of both his homeland and family for his psychopathic and sexually unrestrained paternity. The description is unable to do it justice because its performance and the writing of the piece was haunting in a spectral sense of the word. More people should put an interest in the Poetry Slam team just for the opportunity to see young talented writers go head to head in a nonstop showcase of lyrical satire, memoir and profundity