May 1 was a great day for poetry at the Fourth Annual Westwood High Teen Poetry Slam. Student competitors from 9th through 12th grades did poetic battle in two rounds, dazzling and energizing an audience over 100, including competing poets, judges, emcee, Westwood’s current Youth Poet Laureate Elizabeth Lowney, students, faculty, honored guests and staff.
To open the slam, emcee Junior Hank Murray, last year’s first prize slam winner, explained competition rules and energized the crowd, encouraging them to snap their fingers to show appreciation for a poetic line, or to call out ”Uh-huh!, both acceptable ways to show approval in the world of slam poetry.
For Round 1, seven poets read or recited their original poems to the engaged audience, who clapped, finger-snapped, and called out encouragement to poetic lines they found especially profound, funny, or clever.
While the judges deliberated, consulted and compared their ratings of all seven poets, Youth Poet Laureate Lowney read one of her original poems. The judges called back five poets for Round 2, to present new poems. Judges Wilbur Edwards, Jr., Katy Sechler and Frazier Arets then caucused a second time, and emcee Murray announced declared the three winners: senior M.J. Slocum, WHS class of 2025, (First prize), for "Untitled" and "The Old Man and the Hound"; Charles Goodman, class of 2026 (Second prize), for "Mountain Sentimentality" and "The Grateful Poet"; and Katherine Santos, class of 2028 (Third prize, for "The Sound in the Distance" and "The Chapter Book").
Ms. Theresa Fisher, Westwood High librarian, spearheaded the poetry slam as she has done for five years, stirring up interest in the slam, coaching poets and managing details from seating to photos to watching over every aspect of the slam. English and creative writing teacher Mr. Kieran Moriarty guided students in revisions of the performance pieces. Ms. Katy Sechler, a WHS parent, Westwood Public Library teen librarian Frazier Arets and the Hon. Wilbur Edwards (ret. Judge, Massachusetts Housing Court).
Westwood Poet Laureate Dr. Lynne Viti presented the three winning poets with gift cards, funded by her 2025 grant from the Westwood and Massachusetts Cultural Council, for Poets in the Schools.
In closing, emcee Murray congratulated the winners, poets Slocum, Goodman and Santos, as well as the other poets who read beautifully: Molly Shay, Terris Jones, Rhea Sharma and Georgia Perry.
