"No rhyme scheme, no specific structure": A Pair Review of GWN's Poetry Workshop

By Anna Poon and Nancy Mercado
Girls Write Now Mentor-Mentee Pair

Girls Write Now pair Nancy and Anna reflect on their experiences at the poetry workshop through the medium they focused on during the workshop: slam poetry.

The commanding presence of Leeza inspired everyone to stand in their own skin.

So much so that hands shot up immediately to volunteer to read. (So brave.)

Spoken word has always been kind of scary for us.

Why?

First of all, it’s poetry. We want to do it right and we want to do it well.

There was no way we would have wanted to get up and read in front of everyone.

But by the end we were surprised that we actually wanted to read our pieces.

The other girls were sharing personal things about themselves, so we didn’t feel scared to share our own feelings. (Inspiring.)

Take Emily Alvarez: We don’t remember what she said, but we remember how she said it. Her loose body language and dynamic personality still sticks with us.

Maybe there’s something about the freedom of the format that made us feel like we could do it.

No rhyme scheme, no specific structure.

Inhibitions went down. Down with inhibitions!

Let your inhibitions down; it’s like a chain reaction, everyone else becomes looser.