By Anna Šverclová ’23
Macalester’s traveling slam poetry team (formerly known as the CUPSI team) is heading off to the Midwest Poetry Mashup on Friday and Saturday, April 28th and 29th. During this competition, the team will compete against four other teams from around the Twin Cities, including some notable adult poets such as Zach Goldberg and Farah Habad. This year, Mac’s team includes senior Anna Šverclová, junior Kendall Kieras, and sophomores Adrien Wright and Veronica Kruschel. The competition was organized by Macalester alum, Oliver Schminkey, in the wake of CUPSI’s cancellation. Earlier this year, CUPSI issued the cancellation of the annual poetry slam competition for the 2023 and 2024 seasons. According to ACUI’s official website, “We are saddened that we will not be gathering together this year. ACUI will be taking strategic steps to assess this program and work with the community to determine its future.” We don’t know the future of CUPSI, but we do know that the energy for poetry slam is still here in the Twin Cities, and we’re doing our best not to let it die. Join us on Friday and Saturday for hours of gut-wrenching poetry.
Also, be sure to check out BuckSlam, a new monthly poetry slam organized by Twin Cities Poet, Zach Goldberg. The first slam will be on May 10th at 7pm at Boneshaker books!