By Jonas Buck

This Saturday, Macalester will hold an all-comers poetry slam at 7:30 p.m. in 10K to send off its own team to the National Poetry Slam. This is the first time Macalester has competed in the National Poetry Slam, held at Emerson College in Boston from April 7th to 11th.Dylan Garity ’11, Neil Hilborn ’11, Colin Welch ’10, and Barb Walkowiak ’13 will represent Macalester at the competition. The four will first compete in a preliminary round of competition; from which the top eight teams overall move on to the semifinal round.

From there, they hope to move on to the final round, hosted in the 2,000 seat Cutler Majestic Theater in downtown Boston. In the face of increased competition, Macalester’s poets seem to be keeping a strong sense of appreciation for their art form and gratitude for this opportunity.

“I’ve never been to a national slam before, and I cannot wait to compete with poets who have inspired me,” Hilborn said. “Also, the prospect of sitting in a room with hundreds of other poets is rare and exciting.”

For an art form still slightly outside the mainstream, events as large as the National Slam rarely take place, offering poets a rare opportunity to make an impact in front of a national audience.