Four EMU students win third place in poetry slam invitational

Four Eastern Michigan University students took third place in the 15th annual College Union Poetry Slam Invitational. The competition was held March 25 to 28 at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.

CUPSI team coach senior Darius Simpson, political science major, and his three teammates, freshman Scout Bostley, double major in English and women and gender studies, senior Tiran Burrell, history major, and senior Gabriel Green, written communications major, competed against students from 68 other universities from the U.S. and Canada.

“We’ve dedicated ourselves to these poems for two months,” Bostley said. “It just becomes a big force. It’s like your emotions are just right there.”

EMU held a poetry slam in November and the highest ranking performers moved on to be part of this team.

The last time students from EMU competed in CUPSI, held by the Association of College Unions International, was 2012. They ranked 14 out of 43.

Every school competing performs in two bouts with four rounds each which are held the first two days. The top 20 schools move on the semi-finals and the top four schools compete on the last day in the finals.

Members of the audience with no association to the performing schools judge the poets on a scale of 1-10.

New York University won first place and VCU won second.

Burrell said he did not expect to make it as far as they did. He said while he knew the team would compete in the first two days, when they made it to the semi-finals, he began to think they could win first place.

“I was just chill,” he said. “Then, two hours before the show, I was like, ‘We’re at the finals. Think about it, we took three years off, and we came back, and we’re in the finals.’ So I was really excited.”

Simpson wrote five of the poems, Bostley wrote four, Burrell wrote three and Green wrote three. The poems could be about whatever they wanted.

EMU covered the CUPSI registration fee and the team raised the rest of the money.

“I love poetry because it’s an outlet and a muse,” said Burrell.

Green said he has competed in slams in the past and this was the best ranking he has ever finished with.

“It was sort of like a crowning achievement, a crowning moment,” he said. “Even beyond the scores, everybody around, all the different schools, and all the different poets and everything, they all vibe-ed off us. We brought our own Eastern energy.”

All four students said they plan on going back to the competition next year.

“I don’t like poetry.” Simpson said. “I love poetry. I live poetry. Poetry is what happens when your heart goes on a date with your mouth.”

The team will perform at the Lyric Lounge, 9 p.m. Thursday in Room 300 in the Student Center.