First DCU team enters Unislam Poetry Contest UK & Ireland

Five undergraduate students from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences are travelling to Birmingham this week to participate in Unislam, a UK and Ireland-wide slam poetry competition. 

This is the first time that a DCU team has participated in the performance poetry competition which is taking place in The Hippodrome Theatre, between 18th and 20th March. 

Each UniSlam team is required to have a coach to help the team prepare themselves for the competition. The DCU team is being coached by Dr Kit Fryatt, Assistant Professor in the School of English at DCU.

Kit Fryatt said: “It's a great opportunity to develop creativity, build confidence in performance, and connect with students from around Britain and Ireland who are interested in performance poetry. The students perform both individually and as a group. The poems are all original work by the students themselves (as the rules require), and they're mostly pieces that deal with very live issues for young people at the moment, such as women's rights and safety, navigating relationships and the rising cost of living.”

Cara Mooney (Social Sciences and Cultural Innovation), Jenni Carberry, (English and Human Development) Fay Martin (English and Human Development), Sarahann Mooney (English and Music) and Ella Bowler (English and Philosophy) make up the DCU slam team.

What is Slam?

Slam is a subset of performance poetry in which poets compete as individuals or in teams and are judged by audience members who award them marks out of 10. Developed in Chicago in the 1980s, slam poetry has spread around the world, spawning national and international competitions, TV shows, documentaries, performance and music careers and more.

Unislam 2022

Unislam runs at the Birmingham Hippodrome from 18th-20th March 2022, offering workshops, outreach to schools, career development and publication opportunities as well as the main competition. Check it out here: https://www.uni-slam.com/

Pictured above: Ella Bowler, Fay Martin, Cara Mooney, Sarahann (Sam) Mooney, Jenni Carberry.