On Tuesday, March 21, senior Jasmine Kabira held a poetry slam in room 701. The event was the culminating piece to Kabira’s Custom Capstone project, surrounding social awareness and change in the form of poetry. Kabira hosted poets from freshman to seniors. Participants spoke on the theme of identity.

“I am most proud of the effort the speakers put into reciting their poems for the event. We performed poems about race and identity, and each one was so unique in terms of structure, style of language, and tone, that they all gave refreshing and intimate perspectives on their respective topics. Even if the initial event didn’t reach a large audience, it was evident that it really touched a small one,” Kabira said.

When coming up with an idea for her capstone, Kabira was reminded of a specific moment in her childhood that sparked the idea of a poetry slam.

“In eighth grade, I went to Chicago to visit some family and my uncle took me to a poetry slam at Columbia college. It was just local students from public high schools who all came together and written their own poetry about their own struggles,” Kabira said.

She also explained how her love for poetry extended back to elementary school, and  her love to read it grew into her love to writing and performing it in middle and high school.

“I’ve taken a lot of interest in slam poetry because my favorite recitations are the powerful and passionate ones. I’ve spent countless nights binging on slam poetry videos on YouTube,” Kabira said.

Social Studies teacher Nicole Richman was the advisor of the club and praised Kabira for her determination and work with this capstone.

Richman worked with Kabira to incorporate her interest in poetry with positive social change within the community.

“I worked with Jasmine using a similar framework to what I used with Global Problem Solving Capstone students last year. As her project took shape, I coached Jasmine on community outreach and troubleshooting potential problems,” Richman said.

Kabira noted that the most challenging part of the event was advertising and getting people to attend.

However, Kabira looks to take this poetry slam as a learning experience and troubleshoot to have more attendees in the future.

“There’s a stigma amongst people our age, even in the FHS Community, that poetry is dull and convoluted. However, a big part of this project has been to debunk that, as spoken word poetry is something entirely different that I believe a lot more students would thoroughly enjoy listening to,” Kabira said.