Bristol Riverside Announces By The River Poetry Slam Winners

Bristol Riverside Theatre is pleased to announce the winners of their highly successful First-Ever By The River Poetry Slam. The event, held last month, packed over 250 students, parents and friends into the theatre and showcased creative poetry works by 40 high school students from all over the area. Schools represented included Bristol High School, Harry S Truman High School, Burlington City High School, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, and Abington Friends School.

Reeci (Brittany) Botts of Abington Friends School won the $1,000 first prize. Elijah Barnes won the $500 second prize and Myasia Lopez won the $250 third prize. Barnes and Lopez both attend Burlington City High School.

The Slam was open to all area high school students who performed original poetry pieces of three minutes or less. New York-based award-winning actor, rapper, playwright, educator and BRT artist-in-residence Will Power hosted the slam. Slam judges were theatre artists Teo Castellanos - who performed at BRT as part of the Bridges Informance Series in October - and Kibibi Dillon, Truman High guidance counselor Jim Ewart, BRT Artistic Associate Adam Goldstein, Rebecca Groh, an arts professional from Austin, TX, and musician and artist Taylor Groh.

Jim Ewart called the event, "motivating and awe-inspiring." Ewart says Truman High is always trying to find new learning opportunities for their students and said the poetry slam was "a wonderful event that really brought the community together and was absolutely life-changing for some of the students. The experience gave the students confidence and made them more willing to take risks and try new things."

Next up in the Bridges series of events, choreographer and What You Will collaborator Donald Byrd is visiting Truman High and other area schools, culminating in an "informance" with his company Spectrum Dance Theatre this Friday, January 9 at 7:30 p.m.

In preparation for the First-Ever By The River Poetry Slam slam, students from Bristol, Truman and Burlington City high schools had the opportunity to work with nationally renowned artists and writers Teo Castellanos, Kibibi Dillion and Will Power. Students participated in creative writing and poetry workshops that demonstrated to the students how important and powerful self-expression and the delivery of the spoken word can be.

Students who made the semifinals of the poetry slam were: Brittany Botts (Abington Friends School); Krystal Berrocal, Amethyst Lyons, Amanda Fitzgerald, Michelle Miller, Gigi Northrop, Caramela Reyes, Darius Johnson (Bristol High School); Amanda Manness, Katlyn Barrington, Marquis Johnson (Truman High School); Tawanna Payne, Elijah Barnes, Myasia Lopez, Miya Andrews (Burlington City High School); and Divya Ramesh (West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South). Reyes, Ramesh, Manness, Barnes, Botts, Lopez and Andrews competed for the three cash prizes.

BRT's education series provides opportunities for young people to develop confidence in their written and spoken language skills. The series leads up to BRT's upcoming world premiere of What You Will (February 10 - March 1, 2009) - a new interpretation of Shakespeare's classic comedy Twelfth Night which brings together the worlds of contemporary hip hop and classical theatre.

Through workshops and assemblies, students explore the relationship of hip-hop and spoken word with the plays of William Shakespeare. Activities encourage lively discussion and broaden students' ideas about Shakespeare and American theater and deepen their knowledge and understanding of the play Twelfth Night.

This program is funded by the Marketing Innovation Program, a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the United Way of Bucks County.

 

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