Bel Air, Edgewood and North Harford High Schools each had 5 participants who read poetry in 4 rounds: 2 single rounds, where just one poet performed, and 2 group rounds, where all 5 poets from each school performed.

The poets from Edgewood were Mike Williams, senior, Richard Desire and Brianna Harris, juniors, and Amanda Vaeth and Austin Poist, both sophomores.

Ben Mason and Melissa Streat, seniors, Shelley Smith and Katie Rizer, juniors, and Hannah Dempsey, sophomore, represented Bel Air. Juniors Kalie Grove, Megan Kile, Jeff Otradovec, and Tom Hickey and senior Liz Bowen represented North Harford.

The auditorium was half full which made for a bigger audience than what Edgewood slammers are used to at our own slams. There were four regional guest poets Andrea Gibson, Jamie Kilstein, Katie Wirsing and Christopher August hosting the event.

It seemed as though Bel Air and North Harford focused on topics like global warming and the war in Iraq, while Edgewood decided to go with more personal issues like non-conformity and problems teenagers face. In the end, North Harford took first place with 29.1 points, Bel Air was second with 24 points and Edgewood came in third place with 22.9 points.

“All the slams were really cool, I just wish Edgewood would’ve won,” Katie Wilson, freshmen, said.

North Harford and Bel Air will go on to compete in a regional slam in Baltimore later in June, but that doesn’t mean Edgewood is finished with its slamming.

“Edgewood got ripped off because we were the new ones, but we performed great, and all our poets did their best,” Kenny Suggs, sophomore, said. “We’ll do better next time, all North Harford and Bel Air have are issues, we’ve got soul.”