The Counseling Center and Honors College hosted the first-ever Lipscomb Spoken Word Festival, featuring performances from current students and one professional on Tuesday night in Ward Lecture Hall.
The poetry slam consisted of five Lipscomb students: Salah Salman, Sherrod Foster, Leslie Garcia, Christopher Hebert, Joshua Yarborough and one professional slam artist, Emily Joy.
“Both Andrea Mills of the Counseling Center and I had a common student who introduced us to the poetry of Emily Joy, and we thought it would be an interesting thing to have a night of spoken word,” Honors College director Paul Prill said.
The night started with the students taking turns delivering their poems at the front of a mostly-filled Lecture Hall.
Each student who shared his or her thoughts and vulnerabilities through poetry were greeted with snaps of affirmation and supportive applause.
“I knew I had some students who had done this competitively, and so I thought it would be good to have some student talent along with somebody who does this professionally,” Prill said.
Many of the students who participated are in Lipscomb’s Honors College.
The students talked about everything from race and religion to societal norms and stereotypes, as each student recalled personal experiences that have encouraged them to transform their thoughts about these topics into spoken word.
One of the students, Leslie Garcia, talked about her struggles of feeling comfortable in her own skin and the nuances of “womanhood.”
“We still have a long way to go here, obviously, to try and recognize gender issues on this campus,” Prill noted.
The special guest, Emily Joy, also spoke of her struggle to find her own identity by not conforming to what other people think she should be.
She delivered several different poems that ranged from love and heartbreak poems to ones that dealt with faith and sexuality, detailing how her faith has evolved.
One poem she performed, “How to love the Sinner, but Hate the Sin,” explained that often times it’s reversed, and the sinner is hated instead of the sin.
Even though the topics and content of the poems were sometimes very personal, Joy said she enjoyed the experience.
“This may be my favorite thing this year,” Joy said. “You all really brought it.”
Afterwards, students were able to connect with Joy when social media info was exchanged.