A team of poets are in the midst of creating something no other person at the university has done. Six Georgia State students have come together to create the university’s first College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational Team. CUPSI is a poetry slam competition put on by the Association of College Unions International . Colleges and universities from all over send teams of 4-5 student poets to compete.
The competition will be held at Virginia Commonwealth University from April 15-18. According to the ACUI’s website, each year, “poetry slam teams from across the country travel to compete for top honor at this event.”
This is not the first time a CUPSI team has tried to be formed at Georgia State. Last year, some students tried to make a team and were unsuccessful. Inspired and determined by their predecessors, Nathan Wallace, Scenarious Thurmond, Taniya “Tan” Paylor, Shekrina Roberts, Khymorah Bashir and Jermarcus Wise pushed each other to successfully make the team.
Wallace and Thurmond started the logistics side of making an idea a reality and are the acting coaches. The students also sometimes reach out to established poets for feedback.
In order to make the team, the students had to place top five at a campus-wide poetry slam that was put on by Wallace and Thurmond. The CUPSI team is not yet officially recognized by the university, because the organization the team would have been under went dormant. Wallace and Thurmond hope to start a new poetry organization on campus so the CUPSI can be official and receive funding.
What happens at CUPSI
The four-day competition has a full schedule with days that start as early as 9 a.m. and last as late as midnight. The first day focuses on the first round of preliminary performances and open mic.
Day two includes a head-to-head haiku battle, the second preliminary round and open mic. The third day is the busiest with an event called “Nerd Slam,” workshops, semi-finals, open mic and team meetings.
The competition will come to an end on the fourth day with the final round of competition and the awards ceremony. Teams send up one piece to be performed each round. Performances are judged on a scale of 1-10 including decimals.
Georgia State’s team has already started their weekly practices of performing, writing and editing along with fundraising for the upcoming competition.
Meet Nathan Wallace
Wallace is a junior majoring in history and minoring in creative writing. As one of the front-runners creating the CUPSI team, he isn’t new to the world of poetry. He started writing poetry in elementary school, and started performing his work in the 11th grade.
He was inspired to create the CUPSI team mostly by his passion for poetry. His favorite style of poetry is slam because “it’s the perfect mix of raw poetry and stage presence.”
“I got my first taste of doing poetry slams with Atlanta Word Works, and I’ve loved doing it since,” Wallace said. It has its down[sides], but I think the expression is needed and CUPSI has one of the biggest stages.”
Forming Georgia State’s first CUPSI team was no easy task. According to Wallace, it took a lot of “research, writing and dedication.”
“Scenarious [and I] wanted to have a team put together before the spring so we could have strong writing to perfect going into the next semester,” Wallace said.
Wallace’s goal for the creation of the team is to “give the students a creative way to express themselves and more exposure to new people, experiences, and to reach a wider audience.”
Meet Scenarious Thurmond
Thurmond is currently a senior majoring in sociology with a double minor in psychology and theater. She helps the team edit and practice, but will not be attending the competition in April. This isn’t her first time making the cut for a potential team, but it is the first time that the team created will be attending the invitational.
“Under the Student Org Conscious Collective, I slammed to be a part of the team twice and made it both times, but due to funding, we were not able to go,” Thurmond said.
Like Wallace, she started writing poetry in elementary school and began performing in high school.
Even though she won’t be able to attend the actual event, it’s still worth it to help out the team during practices because of her passion for poetry.
“I love poetry, specifically slam poetry, and I have wanted to compete for a while. I first learned about slam in highschool, and at that time, I wanted to be a part of a national youth competition called Brave New Voices,” Thurmond said.
Meet Tan Paylor
A junior marketing major and neuroscience minor, Paylor discovered the qualifying slam contest via flyer. Paylor is new to performing and writing poetry.
“I just recently started taking poetry seriously towards the end of 2018 after my mental health got really bad and I stepped away from music and song-writing. I’ve never done slam, but I released a few short poems on my Instagram that got a little buzz, and I performed at two open-mics,” Paylor said. “I was super nervous both times, but something about being that vulnerable on stage stuck with me. I knew it was something I wanted to continue doing.”
Her first poetry performance was at Urban Grind’s Open Mic in March 2019. Paylor doesn’t have a favorite style of poetry, but she enjoys emotional poetry that brings her close to tears.
Paylor is looking forward to being a part of the CUPSI team not only for the opportunity to compete, but also to bond with fellow artists that share her craft.
“We want to win, of course. But, I know personally it’s inspiring being around so many talented people,” Paylor said. “When they share their work, it gives me a peek into the person behind the mask. It feels good to be trusted with the rawest parts of these people.”
Meet Shekrina Roberts
Roberts isn’t new to poetry. Like Wallace and Thurmond, she has been writing since she was in elementary school. However, she’s never performed a piece before.
“Every time I was on stage, it was singing, dancing or acting. The idea of presenting my words and my art was always nerve-racking,” Roberts said.
Unlike some of her teammates, her favorite style of poetry is free verse.
“Free verse poems are my favorite,” Roberts said. “I come up with the structure and guide the narrative. I don’t like the idea of rules in my self-expression.”
Roberts has been busy perfecting her craft leading up to her first poetry competition.
“With practice, we try to meet once a week, but you definitely have to do the work individually. There’s a lot of writing we do by ourselves and together. We edit together [and] practice our performance,” Roberts said. “Each member pulls their weight, so it requires us to wear multiple hats. We edit, come up with fundraising ideas, write and coach each other.”
Her goal for the invitational is not only for the team to do well but also to better herself in the process.
“Well, we definitely hope to win at CUPSI, but personally, this is my first time putting myself out there as far as my art is involved, so I hope to push myself and present my work proudly,” Roberts said.
Meet Khymorah Bashir
Bashir is a senior majoring in psychology. She has been writing poetry for the last six years and started performing last year. When Bashir learned about the opportunity to compete to go to CUPSI, she wasn’t hesitant to try.
“I have been wanting to pursue spoken word and poetry for a while, but I didn't know how I wanted to get started. So, when the opportunity was available, I definitely went for it,” Bashir said.
Like Roberts, Bashir also considers free verse to be her favorite style. Even with the disciplined preparation for the competition, she still sees being a part of the CUPSI team as a worthwhile experience.
“The team, as a whole, has been very helpful in terms of me expressing myself through poetry,” Bashir said. “Being on the team has definitely challenged and improve my artistic abilities.”
The path to Richmond, VA
Since the CUPSI team is not yet recognized by the university as an athletic team or student organization, it is up to the team to fundraise their trip to the invitational. So far, a GoFundMe has been set up to help pay for the registration, transportation and lodging necessary to attend the competition.
There are also other fundraising plans in the works to fund the trip. The team is considering hosting open mic events, selling some of their poems in a book and possibly even merchandise.
Affording the trip was the biggest obstacle that prevented students from attending in past attempts, so the team is determined not to let it defeat their efforts this time around.
Paylor encourages students to “support art just like you support sports!”
The Signal reached out to CUPSI team member Jermarcus Wise, but did not receive a response.
Where to reach out and help out
GoFundMe link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/send-georgia-state-to-cupsi
Instagram for Nathan Wallace: @iamnathanwallace
Instagram for Shekrina Roberts: @perfectly_kina
Instagram for Khymorah Bashir: @kh.ymo
Poetry page for Tan Paylor: @exbelowwhy
Personal page for Tan Paylor:- @whyoverex
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