We want to give a huge congratulations to the winners of Verselandia! 2015, the fourth annual citywide high school poetry slam. It was a night full of incredible performances by 20 students from 11 high schools. These students were finalists of their individual school slams who then took the stage at the Newmark in front of hundreds of peers, parents, teachers, and other community members. There were audible gasps, snaps and cheers, and a wide spectrum of emotions as the performers spoke their truths into a mic. Many thanks to our fabulous MC, Turiya Autry, and the teachers, librarians, judges, timekeepers, math masters, and all those who made last night’s event possible! (See below for all the lists…)
Winners 2015
1st: Gwen Frost, Cleveland HS
2nd: Bella Trent, Madison HS
3rd: Sekai Edwards, Jefferson HS
4th: Quinton Dixon, Roosevelt HS
5th [tie]: Fiona Murphy, Wilson HS & Alexis Cannard, Roosevelt HS
For the performances, students’ names were pulled out of a fishbowl. Here is the order for Round 1:
Serena Frazee, MLC
Wyatt Gilderson, Benson HS
Tea Johnson, Grant HS
Gwen Frost, Cleveland HS
Shaylee Reichardt, Franklin HS
Sekai Edwards, Jefferson HS
Maiya Coleman, Cleveland HS
Quinton Dixon, Roosevelt HS
Isabel Reitzes, MLC
Janet Webster, Franklin HS
Khiarica Rasheed, Grant HS
Fiona Murphy, Wilson HS
Lia Freeman, Wilson HS
Havana Maceo, Benson HS
Jamie Bikales, Lincoln HS
Mitch Fletcher, Madison HS
Ashleigh Wills, Gresham HS
Bella Trent, Madison HS
Alexis Cannard, Roosevelt HS
Rona Wang, Lincoln HS
For the second round, the top 10 scores were calculated, those students’ names put back into the fishbowl, and pulled in this order:
Shaylee Reichardt, Franklin HS
Bella Trent, Madison HS
Tea Johnson, Grant HS
Fiona Murphy, Wilson HS
Sekai Edwards, Jefferson HS
Gwen Frost, Cleveland HS
Havana Maceo, Benson HS
Mitch Fletcher, Madison HS
Quinton Dixon, Roosevelt HS
Alexis Cannard, Roosevelt HS
Thanks to our event crew, who are all volunteers from our community:
Judges: Carla Hopson, Dave Maddocks, Manuel Mateo, Renee Mitchell, and Diane Ponti
Timekeeper: Amy Prosenjak
Math Gal: Mona Schraer
Math Assistant: Mary Rodeback
Last but certainly not least, HUGE thanks to the librarians, teachers, and parents who organized and ran qualifying slams: Elaine Ferrel-Burns at Benson, Bryan Smith at Cleveland, Sandra Childs at Franklin, Paige Battle at Grant, Phillip Rafferty at Jefferson, Jenny Owen at Lincoln, Nancy Sullivan at Madison, Kiva Liljequist at MLC, Betsy Tighe and Jaque Dixon at Roosevelt, Linda Campillo at Wilson, and Crystel Kinnee at Gresham. We couldn’t do this without you!
