Alums get their students slammed – on poetry

One day not too long ago, Ahmed Sutton, a 2016 graduate of YSU’s Beeghly College of Education and now an English teacher at Warren G. Harding High School in Warren, tagged along with one of his teacher friends to a poetry event at a local bookstore.

Poets of all shapes, sizes, ages and talents were up on stage sharing poetry on various topics. That’s when a light bulb popped on in Sutton’s head (figuratively speaking, of course): “It would be great to bring something like this to my students!”

So, after he got the go ahead from his boss, a.k.a. the school principal, Sutton put in a call to his friend and 2017 Beeghly College graduate, Ian Dunlap, an English teacher in his own right at East High School down the road in Youngstown.

Thus was born the first Harding-East poetry slam.

“First and foremost, we wanted to create an opportunity for students to express themselves,” Sutton says. “Students wrote on various topics; many were personal. The slam gave students the chance to showcase their writing talents and also allowed them to learn to be comfortable performing in front of others.”

That first “slam” took place on the YSU campus, involved about a dozen students and was sponsored by the Minority Education Association of YSU. Sutton and Dunlap themselves footed the cost of the cash prizes - $100 first place, $75 second place and $50 third place.

With the success in hand, another slam was set for this spring, again at YSU, but has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Harding and East are both closed, and Dunlap and Sutton are teaching remotely.

The Sutton-Dunlap team would like to keep the event going, and to see aspiring poet participants from throughout Mahoning and Trumbull county.

“Our hope is to grow poetry among our schools in the area because we have many talented voices waiting to be heard,” Sutton said. “It’s an awesome experience for everyone involved.”