Poetry Slam! performance of the week: Marie Reed Elementary School

Each Wednesday during the year, we will highlight one of the 41 performances from the 16th Annual DC SCORES Poetry Slam! that took place Dec. 4-5, 2013. The event is the largest youth poetry slam in the District and highlights the original poems of our 1,500 youth. To view any performance from the Poetry Slam!, visit our YouTube channel. You can also read recaps of the event on our blog: Westside; Eastside. 

We begin, appropriately, with Marie Reed Elementary School -- our flagship school, where DC SCORES began in 1994. Wearing their bright-orange soccer uniforms, Reed's performance at Cardozo Education Campus was all about being positive. It was highlighted by a girl's solo poem, during which she punctuated each line with a nonverbal expression.

"Let's dance around and around and smile," the girl -- standing on the edge of the stage -- implored the near-capacity audience. She then gave a huge smile, before continuing with her poem.

Watch Marie Reed's full second-place winning performance by clicking on the embedded video.