The Generation Verb Competition Experience

By: Alexander Alvarez

Left to right: Yelizaveta Katamadze, Alexander Alvarez, Ashley Landman, Daniel Fang, and Luis Vazquez at the Generation Verb spoken word competition May 20, 2023

This Saturday, I attended the Write Speak Inspire event hosted by Generation Verb at the Adam Clayton Powell State Building. This event was made so that young poets, myself included, could share their experiences, stories, and feelings, in an open and slightly competitive space. The program originally came to my class to teach spoken word to students and, after writing and presenting many poems, I was asked by a professional poet if I would want to compete in a poetry competition with three other students from my ELA class. It was a competition between four schools, including Manhattan Center, but it didn’t really feel like one. Everyone was really chill, and even though a monetary prize and poetry glory were on the line, everyone treated it like a fun event. 

Maybe I’m just saying that because our school lost (No, I’m not salty) but the winners were really humble, and honestly great at what they did. One of the winner’s poems was about how being black has caused people to judge them, and the other’s was about how growing up without a father figure, or a father figure who was constantly in and out of their life, affected them. They even came up to me as my mom and I were leaving the event to say that my school did a great job which was…kinda embarrassing but felt nice. Anyways, shoutout to Frederick Douglass Academy, the winning school, for being great sports and pushing everyone to do better.

As for our school, we did pretty well too! Only three kids who went up and read got a ten from at least one judge; me and another student from MCSM, Daniel Fang, were two of them and the last one was from Frederick Douglass, who ended up winning. As I said before, though, I wasn’t really mad. The experience helped me to open up by allowing me to share a poem that describes my life a few years prior, and I got to talk to many amazing people. I was really scared going up as I’m not the best person in big social scenarios, but I got a lot more confidence after seeing other people try their best. 

Afterwards I was, to put it bluntly, completely mentally drained and wanted to just sleep, but I’m happy that everyone had a good time. Also they had brownies and other goodies in the back, which was great too! Shoutouts to my three poetry buddies for doing a great job. They probably won’t read this  but I feel like I should give Daniel and the other two praise, as they definitely deserve it for being so awesome. 10/10 event, definitely would go again.