“My love, you are a shooting star

Getting stronger and stronger”

Gaining confidence to perform a personal poem is never easy for poets like sophomore Kamryne Blake, especially in front of an audience of classmates.

“Get Lit gives me an outlet to express my emotions in a positive way and relate to other people while helping,” Blake said.

Blake has been a part of the Get Lit program since last year and has gone to many events. Get Lit is a program that reaches out to teens to teach poetry and literacy in high school. English teacher Ron Baer introduced the program last year to get students to experience poetry in a different way.

“I saw how Get Lit affected students in other schools and how for some students it changed their lives for the better,” Baer said. “I wanted to introduce it here to give

students a chance to experience what other students were experiencing.”

All English classes from periods two through four got to experience the Get Lit performance on Jan. 29. Host Rachel Kann introduced performers Gordon Ip, Caitlyn Bove, Kyland Turner, Mila Cuda and Blake to the stage during the performance. After waiting in anticipation, students got to see poets Bove and Cuda kick off the event by acting out and reciting Sylvia Plath’s original poem “Spilled Milk.” The two poets took turns saying different parts of the poem. When they would want to add emphasis to the poem, they synchronized their words together.

“It was a surprise from the beginning of the show because I didn’t expect people to come from the back of the room but the poems were cool and touching,” junior Albert Amougou said.

After the duo’s performance, poet Turner was welcomed to the stage. Turner encouraged the audience to clap participate and get involved in the Get Lit program. He also encouraged the audience to clap and snap to anything that they could relate to. Turner went on to do his original poem, “The Chase” gaining the crowd’s excitement and enthusiasm through his powerful words. After Turner’s performance, Kann and him asked trivia questions to the audicane for a chance to win a shirt.

“Poetry is a very hard thing to do. Everything in poetry is about something true,” Turner said.

Ip performed his original poem “Flash Gordon” about representation on the Asian culture. Finishing his performance, Ip welcomed senior Pedro Morataya to the stage to perform his original poem “Accept Me For Acceptance.” Montoya dedicated his poem to plant manager Allen Ford, who died from illness on Jan. 27.

“It felt really good to honor Mr.Ford and perform in front of of everyone,” Morataya said.

Then, Blake went up to the mic to perform their original poem “One Year.” Before performing Blake took time to recognize all the performers who participated and explained how it’s not easy to come up in front of an audience and perform poetry. Pausing to recollect their thoughts, Blake continued to perform “One Year.”

“It takes a lot to get up here. We appreciate the vibes everyone gives off,” Blake said.