The recent GetLit 2025 Classic Slam event strongly exhibited Venice High’s students’ great passion and professionalism in the art of slam poetry, with Venice High School senior Elize Waters earning the achievement of top-scoring individual poet.
Across the four schools, the score margin was strikingly small. In fourth was Venice with 120.8 points, in third place was Cleveland, second was Hamilton, and in first was Bravo with 122.8 points.
This year’s competition marks the Fourteenth Annual Classic Poetry Slam under the GetLit / Words Ignite organization. Venice’s Poetry Slam Club has been participating for nearly a decade. And as displayed through recent triumphs – the team’s commitment shows nothing short of formidable accomplishment.
Quarters and Semi-finals took place on May 1, at the LA Theatre Center. At the start of the event, teams across twenty different schools took part in the competition. In Quarter-finals, these twenty teams were placed into separate “rooms”, and Venice competed against a room of three. Remarkably, Venice’s team won by a wide margin.
Typically, quarter-finals would end with ten teams – to be split into five and five in separate competing rooms. However, there was a tie in one of the slots, and 11 teams ended up advancing, placing Venice in a room with 5 other competing teams.
There are four rounds; each round consists of one poem performed per school. In semi-finals, where our team won their room by a wide margin, they introduced 3 new poems, and kept 1 original, which was the inspirational 4-person group piece on the burdens (yet apparent unity) of public restrooms.
It was apparent that this piece was one of the many crowd-favorites – I had never seen anything like it. By taking a somewhat metaphorical stance to the very prevalent Los Angeles public high school experience, their poem was extremely effective when it came to gaining the audience’s empathy – as well as earning laughter with its relatability.
Slam poetry has the ability to battle stigmas with warm and articulate language, aiming to strike an understanding and empathy somewhere in the audience. When you hear the snaps, you know it’s working.
As our team advanced to finals on , there were three other schools left – Bravo, Hamilton, and Cleveland, all of which are public schools under the LAUSD district. According to Hazel Kight Witham, who teaches English and is a dedicated club sponsor for Poetry Slam along with English teacher Sam Cline, it’s a significant accomplishment.
“That was pretty exciting. It’s rare and not always the case, but there was really great representation.” Ms. Witham says.
When scoring the poets during finals, each of the five judges score a performance on a scale of 1-10 points. The top and bottom scores are dropped, leaving the three middle scores for up to thirty points. Different elements of the performance are considered, the most prioritized being accuracy and stage presence.
The pure emotion of the poets gave the audience tunnel vision. It was a truly mesmerizing experience – although I wasn’t the one performing, my heart still dropped every time a student walked on stage. Their professionalism and maturity—being able to go through such hardships and turn it into art—amused me, I kept having to remind myself these were all kids my age.
Our team has built such a strong sense of community in each other; being so diverse, with so many different experiences, they all come together with their love for poetry. Being in a club like that, you share at least that one thing in common.
Zara Seldon, a senior who has been in the Poetry Slam club for three years, takes great pride in her identity as a slam poet. It brings her such a unique experience, combining writing and performance art in a way that fosters her greatest hobbies. She illustrates this sense of community.
“While Slam is a competition, it really just feels like a giant community of introspective nerds who are genuinely passionate about poetry, and that’s the best part,” Seldon says. “Being part of such a warm writing community has inspired me to continue pursuing SLAM and other forms of literary expression in college.”
I remember going to school assemblies in the past, seeing specific poets and it being very evident that their future was bright. One poet caught my attention right away with her contagious energy and bold charm – this was Elize Waters. Her solo poem, titled “36-inch Faux Locs”, a response poem to “Introspection in Shea Butter” by Arianna Monet, exhibited her great versatility – how she could hold the anticipation of the audience, hooking them with her rapidly evolving stage presence and stratified emotions.
As the event reached its end, I knew that no matter what, Venice’s team’s accomplishments were already more than impressive – they had made it this far.
Coming out to help announce the scores, a special appearance was made by musician and alumni of the Get Lit program—Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, who is better known as H.E.R. Wilson used to perform as a slam poet, representing Champs Charter High of Van Nuys.
“I was once a fourteen-year-old on this stage. I wouldn’t be the person or the artist I am without this program.” Wilson said.
It was such a surreal and inspiring moment. I remember seeing poets’ jaws drop, as if they had caught a glimpse into their potential future.
Slam poetry promotes unconventionality and innovation rather than shutting it down – both of these are essential to the growing minds of teenagers. Being able to express your emotions as an adolescent is a heavy task as it is, but performing arts can break down that wall – allowing yourself to become the canvas, and furthermore becoming vulnerable to how the crowd might paint you in their perceptions.
Slam poetry has become a home for students everywhere. Sure, it’s a competition, but its achievements don’t stop at the scoreboard.
