DMU students joined the UniSlam competition held at Leicester University for the first time on the 31st of January.
Although DMU didn’t make it into the finals they did compete very well and had an outstanding performance.

The DMU team consisted of Claire McGowan, Taylor-Louise Rowley, Jeevan Kaur Bal and Elizabeth Caitlin.

Claire McGowan, 20, Creative writing and English Literature student said: “I was really nervous beforehand, but the atmosphere was incredible, everyone was so supportive and interested in each other’s work, and I learnt so much about slam poetry that I want to learn more and get to know more slam poets out there.”

Toby Campion, Leicester based writer and poet organised the event this year.

The teams that did make it into the finale were Rose Bruford, Goldsmiths, Northampton and Edinburgh.

Edinburgh took the trophy home with Goldsmiths coming in a close second.

Compere, International poet and Midlands coordinator Bohdan Piasecki, 35, said: “The poetry was of a really high standard, it was great.”

Mr Piasecki also ran a workshop before the competition for over 100 contestants and helped the teams prepare before they competed.

“There was a real sense of people wanting to talk and learn from each other.”

Each team had to have four poems ready to read, no longer than three minutes in length.

The teams were encouraged to learn the poems off by heart as they lost marks for reading from notes.

Corey Bedford, 21, DMU Alumni said: “It was great to be the coach for the DMU team and be able to come back to Leicester and represent the university again. The team worked so hard and really impressed, especially seeing most of them were in a slam competition for the first time.

“Goldsmiths are a very deserved runner up, though, only 1.8 points difference between them and Edinburgh, and we had the pleasure of witnessing them from the preliminary round through to the final.”

The winners not only get a trophy and title but win a place at the Hammer & Tongue National poetry slam finals in 2017 held at the Royal Albert Hall.

They also get a place in the UniSlam’s American version competition C.U.P.S.I 2016 which is held in Austin, Texas.

Hollie McNish, spoken word artist and poet, gave a special performance of some work from her new book set to be published later this week ‘Poetry and Parenting’.