{"id":1113,"date":"2012-11-28T02:36:40","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T10:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/?p=1113"},"modified":"2012-11-28T02:36:40","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T10:36:40","slug":"downtown-college-preps-slam-poets-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/2012\/11\/28\/downtown-college-preps-slam-poets-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Downtown College Prep's Slam Poets"},"content":{"rendered":"

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November 28, 2012
\nBy Lisa Hewitt<\/p>\n

\u201cSlam poetry, for me is a just another means of expression. We all have different ways of expressing ourselves and this is how we choose to.\u201d- Carlos Nolasco<\/p>\n

Beginning just over a year ago, the slam poetry group at Downtown College Preparatory (DCP) in San Jose, California, has a unique weekly gathering. In a classroom surrounded by posters breaking down Spanish verbs and maps of Spain, they write and perform poetry for each other. I met with a few regulars in Michael Bower\u2019s classroom: Gabriel Orozco, Naila Cazares, Jose Luna, Angel Barragan, Amanda Pea, and Carlos Nolasco. They all agreed the group is a positive influence in their lives and provides a platform to speak their minds. Naila, a sophomore, explains, \u201cPoetry\u2019s not just about rhyming; it\u2019s about expressing yourself and what you see around you.\u201d Amanda, a sophomore, adds, \u201cI come to poetry and I can\u2026just say it. And [the group members] tell me how they feel about it. And they\u2019ll tell me the truth and that\u2019s basically what spoken word is, the truth. It\u2019s different truths\u2026coming together and unifying us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Bower grew up surrounded by Hip Hop, but it wasn\u2019t until college and with the encouragement of his roommate he started performing poetry. Coming to San Jose in Fall 2011 with Teach for America, Mr. Bower decided to perform a piece of poetry for the DCP administration, teachers, staff and the students. \u201cIn the beginning I got up in front of assembly, and I said \u2018I\u2019m going to start a poetry group. I\u2019m from Brooklyn, I love Hip Hop; just come if you want to express yourself.\u2019 And I got some kids who were really talented and really passionate about it and then it just grew.\u201d Angel, a senior, explains, \u201cHe\u2019s our Spanish teacher and I\u2019ve never thought about Bower as a slam poet\/rapper of anything. And one day he presents us one of his pieces and it was really awesome, I liked it. So then\u2026I decided to join slam poetry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The poetry group is a unique setting amongst the normal <\/em>high school experience; they don\u2019t have to edit what they say or how they communicate. For Gabriel it\u2019s about giving voice to the underrepresented, \u201cWhat I mainly write about is how I\u2019ve gone through this really hard struggle in my life. I might not look it on the outside because I\u2019m skinny and tall but on the inside I\u2019m Hercules when it comes to problems. I want to be a voice for everyone who has struggles in their life, who\u2019s grown up in the ghetto, the projects whatever you want to call it, because those people are what really drive me to become great.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first time the DCP group performed together was at San Jose State University on October 24, 2012, an event sponsored by the Cesar Chaves Community Action Center and KQED. Though some students have performed their poetry in the past, for others this was the first time they\u2019ve shared it in a public venue. After the performance, Mr. Bower explains, \u201c[The group members] got in the van and they started talking about how we\u2019re all a family. That was cool and a very touching moment for sure. Many of them don\u2019t have a place for expression and many don\u2019t have a place where people listen to them. So when they have both at the same time and they can talk about their deepest feelings, I think they really value that.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in learning more, please visit Downtown College Prep\u2019s website: www.dcp.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

View\u00a0Selected Poems<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 28, 2012 By Lisa Hewitt \u201cSlam poetry, for me is a just another means of expression. We all have different ways of expressing ourselves and this is how we choose to.\u201d- Carlos Nolasco Beginning just over a year ago, the slam poetry group at Downtown College Preparatory (DCP) in San Jose, California, has a … Continue reading Meet Downtown College Prep's Slam Poets<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[66,77,80,118,133],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-1113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kqed_research_local_ag","tag-high-school","tag-kqed","tag-kqed-american-graduate","tag-san-jose","tag-slam-poetry"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"template_type":null,"featured_image_type":null,"is_audio_post":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"affiliates","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/affiliates?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"programs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/programs?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"collections","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collections?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"interests","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/interests?post=1113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}