Poetry Slam! performance of the week: Imagine Hope Community Charter School -- Tolson Campus

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. 

Today we highlight Imagine Hope Community Charter School - Tolson Campus, which was participating in its first fall of DC SCORES and, thus, first Poetry Slam!. The Eagles showed no fear on stage in front of 500 audience members. Under the bright lights and decked out in green school uniforms, the team performed a fun and poignant poem, "Harambee."

"Harambee in Swahili means we pull together," said a student, introducing the poem to the audience. Then the Eagles demonstrated several forms of pulling together as a team -- using their voices but also acting out each line.

Imagine Hope's group poems were powerful and well-choreographed, but they just led up to Skky M. taking center stage to read her work "The Hungry Child." Skky's touching poem won her the Shine Award for best elementary school individual performance, and the Eagles took home third place in their Poetry Slam! debut.

Click on the embedded video player above. We promise it will put a smile on your face.