As she stood alone in the spotlight, Pyro, a 17-year-old poet from the Twin Cities, took a moment of silence to gather herself before launching into a highly personal poem, punctuated by shouts and tears.
The poem brought the audience to its feet, and three of the competition's five judges gave her 10 points-a perfect score-cementing her first-place status at the Third Annual Madison Poetry Slam Friday and Saturday at Memorial Union Theater.
Pyro, whose real name is Kelsey VanErt, beat out 15 finalists from cities across the Midwest Saturday night. Although the finalists' ages ranged from 17 to 37, young poets were a significant presence.?
\The cross-generational component is amazing,"" said Katrina Flores, a member of the Multicultural Student Coalition, one of the event sponsors. The final competition was the culmination of a week of events for young poets that included visits to Madison-area schools and writing workshops with renowned national poets Jessica Care Moore and Kalamu ya Salaam.
""There's no way to describe it but to hear it,"" said Shari Zeldin, the mother of 17-year-old poet Emma Isabella, one of the event's finalists. ""The kids are angry. They thrive on it. They just come alive up there.""
Zeldin, who attends Malcolm Shabazz High School in Madison, is a part of Youth Speaks, a nationwide program that began in San Francisco in 1996 and recently opened its doors in Madison.
During the competition, younger poets did not shy away from tough themes, speaking up about suicide, New Orleans and religion.
Jos?? Olivarez, a 17-year-old from Calumet City, a suburb of Chicago, performed a passionate poem exploring personal responsibility and the Iraq war during the semifinals at the Lussier Teen Center. ""We don't go to a lot of these, so they're really special,"" he said.
Poetry slam organizers say they hope this week was just the beginning of a growing support for spoken-word poetry in area schools.
""It's not about competition,"" said UW-Madison senior Josh Healy, who helped organize the event. ""This is about sharing-it's about building and it's about creating.""
