On November 22, ERHS held its second annual poetry slam in the school’s Library Media Center to entertain and to select new members for the slam team.

Students, teachers, parents, and hosts senior Mariam Coker and senior Amina Iro filled the Library Media Center for 13 slammers and a guest poet, Thomas “Vocab” Hill a senior from Montgomery County’s Magruder High School.

Slammers recited poems in two rounds on topics ranging from race relations to drug abuse. Four judges – senior Kayla Allison, senior Harsh Atit, senior Aminata Kamara, and Mr. Clinton Shands – each awarded to each poet scores out of 10, which were tallied and used to determine which 6 poets would move through to the second round.

While the first round scores were being tallied, the guest poet shared four original poems, including a group piece with Iro. Six poets moved on to the second round. Of the slammers who made it to this round, only four would remain.

The third runner-up was sophomore Sadia Alao with 25.2 points. Junior Milan Brown came in as second runner-up with 26 points. Senior Thomas Ilye was first runner-up with 26.9 points. The winner of the poetry slam, with 28 points, was senior Jalen Hickmon. The top four finalists were given a spot on ERHS’ slam team.