During the Connecticut Youth Poetry Slam Finals at the Bushnell Theater of Performing Arts in Hartford last year, my sister Anisa Anuar tied for 4th place and made it to the state’s team to compete at the National level. In this video, Aiman and Hizami took you through the excitement of the contest. Take a listen to Anisa’s amazing and incredibly moving poems during the 2nd and 3rd round of the competition.
Poetry is such a dense, compact form of language. It packs pages and pages of meaning into just a few verses. In a world where we are surrounded by anonymous, thoughtless, prosaic prose — think endless listicles on Facebook — reading a piece where every syllable, every punctuation mark, every line, is carefully considered…it’s a breath of fresh air.
And that ability to convey lots of meaning very succinctly is vital in any walk of life. Nobody cares unless you tell a story. As Robin Williams said in Dead Poets Society, “Poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for…That you are here – that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.”
This might have been old news, but we did not have a chance to edit and publish this video immediately after it was recorded. The event took place on April 19, 2015.
My sister Anisa was supposed to compete at the International Youth Poetry Slam in Atlanta from July 15-19 of that year. Even though this was Anisa’s dream, unfortunately she couldn’t make it because she will be attending the Stanford University Pre-Collegiate Summer High School program. Anisa chose to forego the fame of being televised on HBO for academic endeavors.
Nevertheless it was an experience she would never forget, and this video will help cement that memory. It was one of the proudest moments for her. It was an impressive accomplishment given the fact that Anisa was from Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS), and not from a liberal arts high school. Amazingly, 4 out of 16 state finalists were from ESUMS. This was truly an awesome accomplishment. Congratulations to Anisa and all four of ESUMS poets who made it to the final state round.
Many thanks to Mrs. Robinson who has tirelessly coached and led the team, and made national after the first tries. Special thanks to Mrs. Robinson’s mom who has supported the entire team by helping to transport the students to the qualifying rounds. Also thank you for treating these very talented young kids at Ashleys Ice cream after the event.
And finally many thanks to fellow ESUMS students, biology teacher, vice principal and other staffs who showed up to show their support. as well as other teachers who have supported the program since day one.
We have published several photos taken during this event at MalayUSA’s FB page at https://www.facebook.com/MalayUsa/pho…. Please feel free to browse the album there.
We will also be uploading a full-length video of the auditions / competition. Unfortunately, because we arrived late, we were not able to record the first round.
BNV FESTIVAL ATLANTA 2015 (July 15-19)
The Brave New Voices Festival is many things, including but not limited to the home of the International Youth Poetry Slam. Once a year, hundreds of young poets, their mentors, and the organizations that sponsor them come from all over the country – and increasingly the globe – to spend 5 days together celebrating the voices of our future. Powered by Youth Speaks, the festival invites young people to take part in as many as 30 workshops and 50 events in just a few days.
As featured on HBO and multiple other media outlets, Brave New Voices makes visible young people, their poetry, and their lives.
Brave New Voices 2014 features over 500 Teen Poetry Slam Champions from 50 parts of the country and 5 additional cities from across the globe, representing over 50,000 young poets in their local communities. These young writers are a diverse, creative, intelligent group of trendsetting community and cultural leaders. They come to Brave New Voices each year not only to compete, but also to attend world-class workshops led by renowned poets and writers, participate in youth development programs, and highlight the voices of a new generation of leadership.
More Info:
https://bushnell.org/education/connec…
http://youthspeaks.org/bravenewvoices/