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Sports blog: Stamford Sports Scene

By LAUREN MYLO

Times Staff Writer


STAMFORD --The woman who's achieved the title of Slam Mistress at the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City still loves to come to Stamford to read and listen to poetry.

It's Mahogany Browne's second year at the annual Stamford High School Arts Festival, which consists of an art show, a poetry slam competition and a spring concert with the Madrigal Singers and Concert Choir.

English teacher Jim McCaffrey said Browne performed for the entire school last year and "got a lot of people interested in poetry." He invited her back this year to help coach the students before the actual slam on Thursday, May 28, when students performed before family and friends.

Each of the approximately 30 teenagers participating in the slam put together two poems in class or on their own for the evening. There are two rounds of competition and only five students make it past the first.

Browne said she returns because the students are insightful and willing to try, and because of how welcoming the school is to cultural diversity.

"(The event) nurtures the idea of poetry," she said. "(The students) fell in love with it, and their voice is valid. Here, in comparison to everywhere else, they're more open."

Browne said she loves that the Stamford students discuss everything from disabilities to Eliot Spitzer in their poetry.

"They're living in a time with not just global situations but everyday sociopolitical issues," she said. "You have some really in tune young people."

In their poetry, students also discussed their faith, ignorance in high school cliques and other personal or political issues.

Katherine Breen, 15, wrote one poem about a girl who committed suicide last year. She said sometimes she'll just string words together that sound good, but other times she'll put together poems on "important" topics.

Jean Henry, 17, said he and his friends hope to publish their own multi-lingual poetry book sometime in the next year.

"I feel like poetry is something that hasn't been heard enough," he said. "So I feel like this is a good way for us . . . to be heard and say what we need to say without violence or other negativity."

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