The ISU First Amendment Day committee continued its celebrations leading toward First Amendment Day with a poetry slam.

The poetry slam took place on April 9, 2013. 

The Ames Poetry Revival were some of the performers at the slam, which took place in The Space for Ames. There were 30 people in attendance to listen to the poets express themselves in honor of the first amendment.

The first amendment allows individuals to express five freedoms: speech, petition, religion, press and assembly.

The event gave poets a chance to communicate their opinions and feelings through poems.

The poetry slam was turned into a competition by selecting three volunteer judges to rate each poet’s poem on a scale of 1 to 10. The judges’ only criteria for judging was his or her own ability to form an honest opinion based on the poem and performance of the poet.

The rules of the poetry slam were that the poem had to be the original work of the poet, the poem had to the three minutes or less, no costume or props could be used and there could be no musical accompaniment.

Poets spoke in the order that they signed up and were allowed a three-minute time limit for their poem.

There were six poets who expressed themselves through their poems.

Poet Joseph Soukup read two of his poems at the slam, “A Warhorse Preparing for Battle” and “Heading Home From School.” Soukup is also a musician.

“It is an expression because, as a musician too, you’re on stage and you want to go up there and sound really good and give lots of confidence,” Soukup said about what it is like to perform his poems.

Soukup also said that people should not have to be reminded to celebrate the First Amendment.

“It is an issue when you have to have a day to remind yourself that you are free,” Soukup said.

Audience member Mackenzie Petermeier, senior in graphic design with a minor in advertising, came to the event for extra credit in a class.

“We just thought this would really interesting to go to, and more interactive,” Petermeier said.

The Ames Poetry Revival meets the first Tuesday of every month with a 7:30 p.m. registration for poets and 8 p.m. begins the slam at DGs Tap House. Each poet is to bring two poems to read.

There are many other events this week for First Amendment Week.