Peltier Takes Third in Poetry Slam

MISSOULA – Seeley-Swan High School junior Kyle Peltier and senior Amber Leetch participated in a Poetry Slam at the Public House in Missoula Feb. 17. The Slam was hosted by Big Sky High School's Creative Writing Class to help raise money for their Literary Journal. There were more than 100 in attendance and 40 people competed. Peltier placed third.

Poetry Slams are an opportunity for poets to share their writing in a competitive atmosphere.

"Poetry slams are such a good place for students to perform poems they've written to enthusiastic, diverse audiences," wrote SSHS English Teacher Lori Messenger. "Poetry is especially meant to be heard out loud and writers improve their language choices the more they get to read and hear others read their work."

During a typical slam, all poems must be original and memorized. There are three rounds narrowing the poets from 16 to eight and then cut to four for the final round. Points are awarded based on the presentation including: language, enunciation, expression, hand gestures and quality of the writing. Poets are docked if they go over the allotted time or their poem is not memorized. Plagiarism is not tolerated.

The winner is selected from the top four. Poets must have three original works ready to share.

The majority of the participants at Aerie's slam were high school and college students. However the youngest poet was eight and there were a handful of adults who also read.

Peltier said this Slam was run more like a reading. The judges were Big Sky students and they picked the top five from the 40.

This was Leetch's first slam. She read "If the Fates had Changed Their Minds."

"I was pretty nervous since I had never done that in front of such a big crowd," said Leetch. "But once I got up there it wasn't that bad."

Leetch was happy with the audience's response and laughter at certain parts of her poem.

"Amber read her poem with the best expression I've seen her yet use," wrote Messenger. "She came to last year's event to cheer on her friend Lauren Bemrose and decided to take our Creative Writing class and step to the mic herself this year."

Peltier has read a couple times at the E3 Convergence Gallery's month poetry slam.

"I've been working on some slam poetry and I wanted to see how well I would do," said Peltier. "I was terrified the whole time. I was intimidated because I saw people who had been at other slams and they were really good."

When Peltier's name was called he said the fear just went away. "I was like oh, time to show some people up."

Peltier shared his poem "A Couple of Reasons Why When You Date Me You Also Date My Best Friend." Leetch said he was the only one who had his entire piece memorized and used hand movements while he read.

Peltier said he received a lot of laughter during his poem. He also had people compliment him on his poem afterwards.

"Kyle worked so hard the whole week before to get his poem revised, memorized and practiced," wrote Messenger. "He kept getting a notch more relaxed and improving his expression, enunciation and hand gestures. Then he performed it a huge bound better than I'd ever seen him practice. He has come so far with using specific imagery in his writing."

Peltier received third place and $15. "When I got up on stage I was like, I won something. Everyone was really happy for me," said Peltier. "Afterwards you could tell everyone was really happy to be done and we were all really friendly and nice towards one another."

Messenger wrote, "It was so hopeful to watch this teenager-run event spool out so successfully and to have Seeley-Swan High right in the center of it."

Both Peltier and Leetch also received points towards their SSHS art letter for participating.