The Mountain Laurel’s poetry slam went off with a bam
Members of Required Chaos perform while the artists are creating their pieces.
Maressica Sawyer, Staff Writer
Poets, artists, musicians and NGU’s improv team created a night to remember Wednesday, October 1 at a poetry slam hosted by NGU’s literary magazine “The Mountain Laurel.”
Before the night began, freshman William McDonald, emcee promised it would be fabulous as visual artists, poets, musicians and North Greenville University’s improvisation team, Required Chaos, took the stage for an evening themed “Expansion.”
“We wanted a broad topic so anything can be created,” said Heather Bodine, co-art
editor of the ” The Mountain Laurel.”
There were four visual artists participating in the Hayes Ministry Center during the poetry slam. Three of the artists were current students at North Greenville and the other one was a graduate from NGU. Three of the artists were painting and one was drawing with sidewalk chalk.
After McDonald introduced the evening’s artists, the poets, musicians and Required
Chaos took the floor. There were 12 different poets who read or recited their original
poetry. Some recited their work as a spoken word and others just read their poems to the
group.
Required Chaos performed many times throughout the night. The audience was involved
with every game they played. From the sound of the laughter, the audience found them to
be hilarious.
In addition to the poetry, art and improvisation, there were five musical performances,
one monologue and one rap by Andrew Stevens, mass communication instructor.
Stevens got the audience to give him a beat and then he rapped “Reader’s Digest” by
Larry Norman.
“It was totally spontaneous; that’s why I messed it up,” he said.
At the end of the night, the artists told the audience what their creation was and how it
went with the theme for the night.
For example, one artist created Mickey Mouse with an emoji as his face. Another depicted a singer saying that he loved Chapstick to show that musicians will say anything to get a following. Another was a self-portrait showing vulnerability,.
