Roxbury Prep Students Place at National Spoken Word Competition

The worldwide pandemic has changed what it means to be a high school student, but it hasn’t changed Roxbury Prep students’ determination to continue to engage their intellect and talents through after school clubs and activities.

One such club at Roxbury Prep, the spoken word team called INSOMNIA, recently placed first in quarter finals and second in semifinals in the Get Lit Slam Classic, an annual spoken word competition organized by Get Lit, an organization that “uses poetry to increase literacy, empower youth, and inspire communities.”

The Slam Classic is typically a California-only event, and the Roxbury Prep INSOMNIA team was headed to California for the competition when events, travel and schools started to shut down as a result of COVID-19.

No matter, Roxbury Prep students increased their practice sessions from home to be ready to compete online in late April. They were the only team outside of California in the competition.

Roxbury Prep’s team, INSOMNIA, which stands for “Intellectually Navigating Systematic Oppression Making Noise In America,” is a place for students to speak their truth while deeply considering the work of various artists and authors.

There were five teams competing, each student performed one "classic" poem written by authors like Maya Angelou, Walt Whitman, or even Tupac, and then performed their own original "response" piece. Topics for poems ranged from domestic and sexual abuse, the trials and tribulations of growing up to young love, race and ethncity and mental health.

“It’s important for students to continue their passion outside of school especially when we are under quarantine,” said Elijah Hodge, one of the INSOMNIA coaches and also the Dean of Students at the Maywood campus as well as the head football coach. “Holding virtual practices three times a week gave the poets a sense of normalcy and consistency during these unprecedented times.”

With much passion and emotion, Roxbury Prep student Christie Jolie read the Natalie Diaz poem Why I hate Raisins, a poem about hunger. She pounded her fist and threw her head back saying, “I hate raisins because now I know, my mom, she was hungry that day, too. And I ate all the raisins.” She followed it up with her own piece, titled, Don’t Let Your Grapes Run Dry.

Performances were a mix of live via Zoom and videos students submitted ahead of time. Students performed from home, in front of their closets, beds, or in their living rooms, showing the power of spoken word and the passion that they all feel towards it.

“Wow, so beautiful and powerful,” the coordinators of the events remarked after watching Roxbury Prep students perform.

Roxbury Prep’s spoken word club is part of the school’s “High School 2.0” program--a series of extracurricular activities that encourages all of its students to explore interests and talents outside of core academic subjects. The program brings outside experts to teach or lead over a dozen classes and clubs, like coding and dance. Students are able to learn the kind of individual pursuits that just happen naturally in the lives of more affluent students.

The Roxbury Prep team consisted of Sammy Marei, Virginia Walker, Krissy England, Christie Josile, Olivia Dunlap, Jasiah Woodberry and Anjaliyah Echmendia. The coaches are Elijah Hodge and Lenerick Budron