Anarchy erupted last Saturday in Alpha Delta Phi (Alpha Delt) as WeSlam sponsored the first event of its spring slam series, “The Prop Slam Featuring Aziza Barnes!” The most infamous of poetry slam protocol, “No props are EVER allowed,” was defied, and poets were encouraged to utilize props to inspire, alter, and enhance their poetry. This reversal transformed items typically resulting in disqualification into the focus of the poetry performed. This riff off of the standard rules, combined with WeSlam bringing an amazing feature and inspiring guest opening group and Wesleyan bringing a crowd with vigorous, palpable energy, led to an unforgettable night of slam.

The night opened with returning Wes alum Evan Okun ’13 performing beside members of Circles & Ciphers, a Chicago-based leadership group for young men going through the juvenile justice system. The group aims to empower its participants to transform their legacies through restorative justice practices and the principles of hip-hop art and culture.

“Personally, I was blown away by Circles & Ciphers,” said slammer David Stouck ’15. “I think that many of Wesleyan’s students are interested in, research and discuss the experiences of underprivileged youth. Yet Circles & Ciphers brought the realities of impoverished urban struggles into the same room as Wesleyan students and forced many of us to face the awkward relationship between what we discuss in the classroom against what we have actually experienced.”

After Circles & Ciphers opened, the prop slamming began. Poets found innovative ways to maximize their prop-tential. Returning from abroad, Lily Myers ’15 saw the slam with fresh eyes and was overwhelming excited and fascinated by the community to which she returned.

“I really liked [the prop slam],” Myers said. “I think it went in two very different directions, and I liked both of the directions it went in. I think some people used it as more of a tool for humor, like Emily [Weitzman ’14] sitting in this rocking chair, which was funny…but it actually worked so well with her poem.”

Myers also outlined how some of the more serious poems benefited from propping it up.

“Marissa [Castrigno ’15] had this poem called ‘Martha Stewart’s Living,’ and she had these paint swatches that she got from Home Depot and she would give a little stanza or an image and then show the color that it was,” Myers said. “I thought that was beautiful and that was a really great use of props that was adding another dimension, and it was really gorgeous: the colors, the images, the scenes she was describing.”

After the first round of the slam concluded, the audience prepared itself for the night’s unbelievable feature, Aziza Barnes. The power in Barnes’s words and performance had the audience bursting and encouraged many Wesleyan poets. Myers became wide-eyed, sat up straight, and really started using her arms to speak when I asked her what she thought of Barnes.

“She was amazing,” Myers said. “I’m so glad we got her. I had heard only a bit of her stuff before, but she made me want to hear more of it. She’s an incredible writer, an incredible performer. Yeah, I thought it was mind blowing.”

Competing poet Arielle Trager ’14 found Barnes’s writing philosophy to be equally powerful.

“She was awesome,” Trager said. “I really connected with what she said during her workshop… she said it’s important to know why you’re writing to really check in with yourself every time you write a poem…. Interrogate yourself, make this poem not just something to comfort you but something to challenge yourself and the way you feel.”

After Aziza’s set finished, the second round of the prop slam commenced. Trager performed “For Me,” a powerful poem about how Trager’s artistic works are hers alone and are not her former lover’s. For her prop, Trager went through a slide show of paper, each sheet simply having the word “love” typed more times than the sheet prior. This seemingly small addition heightened the poem’s themes of repetition, autonomy, catharsis through writing, and connection. Trager was getting a great response throughout her performance, and when she finished, the audience went berserk with enthusiasm. A smile came across Trager’s face as she spoke humbly about one of the biggest crowd reactions seen at a Wesleyan poetry slam.

“I never got a reaction like that before,” Trager said. “I was surprised, but it was wonderful. I don’t know if it was just a new group of people hearing for the first time, the vibe in the room was really great, partly because the hosts [Rick Manayan ’17 and Cherkira Lashley ’15] were so awesome, but yeah, it was an amazing reaction.”

At the end of the night, the results were tabulated to discern who would win the prop slam. Second runner-up Matt Siegelman ’16 had impressed the audience by using his guitar to create a rather catchy song/rap/poem hybrid. Runner-up Hazem Fahmy ’17 performed a moving poem about the expectations placed on young Egyptian men in which he read from an old-fashioned scroll. But with two perfect scores and a 9.9 given in the second round, the First-Ever Prop Slam Champion had to be no other than Trager.

All in all, the night was deemed a major success.

“I loved it,” Myers said. “I thought it went so well. I loved both of the features. Aziza was fire. Circles & Ciphers, it was great to have them. I was impressed by everyone’s work. It heartened me, it was really inspiring to see that this is the stuff that the writing community at Wes is doing right now.”

And lastly, I will leave you with one of Barnes’s first remarks upon entering the stage, a remark that gave everyone in that room a little reminder that we have something special and unusual going on at Wesleyan.

“Where else would you see so many young people spending their Saturday night listening to poetry?”

Correction: This article originally referred to the poem “Martha Stewart’s Living” as “Martha’s Stewart Living.”