The young mind is a sharp pencil or a fine-line pen. It has a point; it wants to make a mark. Stanza and Deliver is a fast-paced, fun-filled performance poetry contest for hearts that beat and minds that speak !

Following wordshops run by seasoned slamsters Sara-Jane Arbury and Marcus Moore in schools across the region, Swindon's wittiest young wordsters performed their most slamazing poetry in a bid to reach the hearts and hearing parts of the public.

This was an event for invention, flair and commitment where random judges awarded points for poetic style and content and the warmth of the applaudience. The heat was on to produce the goods to become Swindon's Poet Idols and have their names on the prestigious SFL Youth Slam Cup, sponsored by The Commonweal School - A Performing Arts College.

The quality of writing and performing at this years SFL Youth Poetry Slam was fantastic and that’s official! "Another amazing event, showing just how talented the teenagers of Swindon are, as both writers and performers.” Commented Marcus Moore from Spiel Unlimited who delivered the project which was a partnership between The Swindon Festival of Literature,The Commonweal School, A Performing Arts College, Swindon LEA, Artswords, Artsmad and The Poetry Society,

Commented Kirsty Carter Strategic Co-ordinator for Artsmad. “Another outstandingly successful Youth Poetry Slam. I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought that the standard of writing and performance was extremely high. There was a wonderful, supportive atmosphere and the whole event was an impressive advocacy opportunity for arts and young people.”

The Slam was a very close contest won for the second year by Commonweal and their group Bebble Crows with 265 points, second place was also won by Commonweal with their group The Slammers with 264 points. Third place went to St.Joesphs RC Comprehensive School with their group Anti-heroes with 263 points.

Commented Josie Williams, Community Arts Development Officer at Commonweal and also the Youth Slam coordinator. “The identity of the schools is unknown prior to the Grand Slam. The students have to write the poems themselves, but teachers can help with delivery. Our students were auditioned to take part in the event and extra coaching was given by staff.”

Comments from the winning team Bebble Crows.Emily Smith. “It was a brilliant opportunity, just fantastic, I couldn’t believe it when we won. This is our first slam but we would like to do more.”

Beth Mcquade. “We are performing our winning poem along with the Slammers at year assemblies all week at school. We would like to thank Miss Butler, Mr. Leslie, Miss Ogden, Miss Kimber from the English Dept for all their help and enthusiasm and also to our head Mr. Defter who helped us with a few performance techniques.”

Chloe Millen. “The most exciting part of the project was performing on the Arts Centre Stage and the most challenging was the school auditions, most of year 8 took part in this and the best ones were picked to take part in the Slam. I would love to do it again.”

Saturday 6th May 2006

Swindon's 2nd Inter-School Youth Poetry Slam! 11am / ticket £4.00 for adults - under 16's free available from Arts Centre Box Office tel: 01793 614837

Participating schools:
The Commonweal School
Dorcan Technology Collage Greendown Community School Highworth Warneford School
Hreod Parkway School
Kingsdown School
St. Joseph's RC Comprehensive
Churchfields School.