Poetry, music at Sins annual slam

February 12, 2007 —

Cardinal Sins' winter poetry slam, Slam-O-Rama-Glama-Jama, marked the first time the group had incorporated live music into the happenings, a change they plan to make permanent at future events.

With the motive to attract a larger, more diverse crop of people, four bands were added to the slam.

"We wanted to involve more students from around campus and knew this could be done by adding live music," said Melissa Seitz, faculty advisor of Cardinal Sins.

Live acts included The Gloaming, I Became the Sky, The Dapple Dandiprats, and Seitz' own Cremains of the 10th Circle.

The groups were collected by an open invitation issued through MySpace by Cardinal Sins editor-in-chief Christi Griffis.

Although the turnout was encouraging, Seitz noted the spacious dimensions of the Multi-Purpose Room might have created the impression of a smaller gathering.

"The turnouts weren't as big when we used to do these in the Cardinal Cage," she said, "but because it was so small, they probably felt more crowded."

In addition to the live musical performances, the slam also included a full slate of participants for the judged poetry portion, while six

people took part in the open mic session. Bakari McClendon, a.k.a. Wax Poetic, won the judged part of the slam and will have his poem published in the Winter 2007 edition of Cardinal Sins.

Assegid Mersha and Marc Beaudin took second place.

Magic 106.3 DJ Big Steve served as the emcee for the evening's festivities.

A mouthful of a title, Slam-O-Rama-Glama-Jama is a blend created by Seitz to indicate the range of activities the event featured.

Her group added another layer to its meaning in one of their songs, describing it as "pen to paper prestidigitation, headaches craning neck ward to the light of enlightened poems or prose."

Now that a more versatile platform has been set in place, the publication hopes more people will be encouraged to attend future slams.

More information can be found at svsu.edu/cardinalsins.