Light over darkness, our lives matter: A Poetry Slam! full of inspirational messages

Written by Jake Lloyd
Communications Manager

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Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that

It's impossible to choose one line from Wednesday night's DC SCORES Poetry Slam! that encapsulates the collective message sent by DC kids over the course of three hours.

But that first line from Marie Reed Elementary School, the last of 21 teams to take the stage, is as representative as any.

In front of a standing-room-only audience inside Columbia Heights Education Campus' auditorium, team after team of District youth ages 8-14 expressed their feelings through poetry Wednesday night. Performances were choreographed beautifully. They were often bilingual. They brought laughter from the audience. And tears, too.

During a time in our country when things are uncertain and nerveracking -- particularly for the immigrant youth who made up the majority of the Slam's poet-athletes, and their families who watched with pride -- Wednesday's event was a catharsis of sorts. And reason for optimism.

Kids are incredibly smart, their thoughts nuanced. Kids' voices are powerful, inspirational, impassioned.

We all come from different places, but we all come as one
-- Bancroft Elementary School

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If only our country's leaders listened to these kids. Throughout the Slam!, one team after another addressed the issues they're grappling with, but not with vitriol and not by pointing fingers.

Rather, they did so by spelling out and illustrating what truly makes our country, our city, and our neighborhoods great.

"I love my country, I love my home," chanted Capital City Public Charter School's students. "Stop hurting my beautiful people."

Wearing different colored hoodies, Lincoln Middle School's message was clear: "The next time you see me, put some respect on my name."



"If I were in charge of the world, I would ban racism and make sure everyone was safe and not violent," said Chinaedum U. of Barnard Elementary School.

Raymond Middle School took the stage with signs including "Love trumps hate" and messages that resonated with many:

"Everyone has a choice. Start using your voice! America, wake up and do what's right!"

"The soil is the land of many/Who are you to take away our homes of plenty?"

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If there's one DC SCORES poet-athlete who exemplies that your size does not determine the influence of your voice, it's Luis R. of Brightwood Education Campus. Decked out in his blue soccer uniform, the 10-year-old led his team's second-place performance and took the microphone with the confidence of a future world leader.

"I stand up for all immigrants in the U.S."

Luis' group-leading performance was followed by Natalia L., also 10, who wowed the crowd with an individual poem that would later win her the Shine Award for best individual performance. When Natalia found out she'd won, she rushed the stage with pure elation, hugging D.C. United coach Ben Olsen who was there to hand her a trophy. 

That moment, as much as any, demonstrated how much the Slam! means to the kids.

Then I got it, 

What if I was an explorer, 

What if I found a place that no one from our people had ever discovered, 

What if in that place kids can run freely, 

Without having to worry about the dangers in the world, 

What if in this world peace there was the number one law, 

And no one dared to break it,

-- Natalia L., 10, Brightwood EC

Ideas. Messages. Hope. The theme continued throughout the evening, one performance blending into another yet standing out for its originality as well. The above-capacity audience stayed for it all. 

LaSalle-Backus' elementary school youth impressed with their poem "Onomatopoeia" and then suggested TLC -- DC SCORES' core values of teamwork, leadership and commitment -- "for the United State of America." Third-place finisher Seaton Elementary asked: 

Don't we have the right to vote? 
Don't we have the right to live? 
Don't we have the right to choose? 
Don't we have the right to work? 
Do we live in a democracy? 

And then answered...

We have, We have a voice 
Nosotros tenemos una voz 
We have, We have a voice 
Nosotros tenemos una voz 
Sun-ing 

With their faces painted the colors of their home countries' flags, Bancroft's poet-athletes delivered a unifying, bilingual "Where we come from" poem. Then Ramon C., age 9, took the mircophone and described poetically his year-and-a-half journey emigrating to the United States -- including 15 days spent in jail.

Powerful.

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By 7:30pm, two hours and 19 performances in, so much had been seen and said that emcee Charity Blackwell could have sent a willing, inspired audience home. Yet two schools remained, and they would both leave the auditorium celebrating winning the Golden Mic trophies. 

KIPP WILL Academy's students could be on the front lines of the Black Lives Matter movement, because their performance's message was unified, clear, passionate, and delivered beautifully -- an individual poem, then a group one, another solo poem, and finally a group one.

"What's the point of having freedom if we aren't really free?" Jaquan W., 12, asked into the mic one moment. The next, his teammates, in their red soccer uniforms, joined him: 

We choose our own fate
Try to make no mistake
Live for the peace.
From the past to the present
(Pause) Life can be pleasant
Live for the peace
You can live rich
And your heart will be switched but
Live for the peace
In the hopes of being suture
(Pause) We can be the future
Live for the peace 



Marie Reed followed KIPP WILL, the kids taking the stage with labels hanging in front of their orange DC SCORES uniforms. "Bad," "violent," "ugly," "selfish," "girl," "uneducated," and more. The poet-athletes proceeded to debunk labels through poetry, punctuating their performance with:

Let’s rip off these labels
And say sayonara
So we can live in a world where
The color of your skin won’t matter to anyone

And with that, the 19th Annual Westside DC SCORES Poetry Slam! had reached its climax. Not every team or poet-athlete left with a trophy half an hour later, but all delivered messages, pleas, hope and inspiration for the hundreds of adult audience members who packed the auditorum.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that




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Elementary Schools 
1st place — Marie Reed Elementary School
2nd place — Brightwood Education Campus
3rd place — Seaton Elementary School
Spirit Award — H.D. Cooke Elementary School
Shine Award — Natalia L., Brightwood Education Campus

Middle Schools 
1st place — KIPP WILL
2nd place — Truesdell EducationCampus
3rd place — MacFarland Middle School
Spirit Award — Brightwood Education Campus
Shine Award — Yanina C., Lincoln MIddle School

2015 Eastside Poetry Slam! -- I am powerful, I am enough!

Written by Jake Lloyd
Communications Manager

Before the Eastside DC SCORES Poetry Slam! began Thursday evening, guest poet Malachi Byrd did a call-and-response with the hundreds of young poets inside H.D. Woodson High School.

"I am powerful," the DC Youth Slam Team member said.

"I am POWERFUL," responded kids representing the 18 teams.

"I am enough." "I am ENOUGH!"

But then a kid piped up from the crowd, "What does 'I'm enough' mean?" Good question, responded Bird, who told the kid and every poet-athlete in attendance what they've come to realize and embrace during the 12-week fall DC SCORES writing program.

That who they are and what they do is, simply, enough. That they should love themselves.

And that was the theme of what followed -- an array of serious, funny, poignant and brilliantly choreographed performances that captivated a capacity audience.

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The Aiton Elementary School Bears are known in DC SCORES circles for being quite the tenacious, determined soccer players. They are athletes led by a coach, Mr. Hollins, who takes their games seriously and holds each poet-athlete accountable.

The Bears were in character Thursday, marching out on stage as boxers and dazzling the audience with a rhythmic, perfectly choreographed performance that might land some of these Bears in Hollywood (if they're not playing professional soccer).

I can/I can!
I can learn/I can learn!
I can achieve/I can achieve
I am successful/I am successful!
I am a scholar/I am a scholar!

The Aiton Bears were the Aiton Bears, and at night's end they rushed the stage for a second consecutive year after winning the Golden Mic trophy and danced joyously alongside D.C. United coach Ben Olsen and goalie Travis Worra.

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Beers Elementary School's second-place performance was dictated by an event that hit close to home. Earlier in the year, the Cheetahs (team name) lost a beloved teacher to breast cancer.

The Cheetahs not only dedicated their performance to the teacher, but made it educational. Poem 1 was for Mrs. Agurs:

We were blessed to have you on this earth

We wish you were here to help us with our work

You were very inspiring and pretty

I wish we had more people like you in this city

Then the students, all dressed in pink, performed "Cure It," a plea to find a cure for the awful disease and for women to take every precaution possible to avoid and/or detect it.

And finally, the Cheetahs performed an ode to all their DC Public School teachers. They might be third- through fifth-graders, but their understanding of life's delicacies and embracing what you have shined brightly. 

Teachers educate us and give us knowledge

They give us work to prepare us for college

You teach us different subjects like ELA, science and math

Don't torture them before you come to school/Please take a bath!

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Each team took the stage in different outfits. As is usually the case, there were plenty of schools sporting their soccer uniforms -- proud of all the progress they made on the field this fall and feeling united as one, the same school name on every child's jersey.

Leckie Elementary School, decked out in their customary gold shirts, showed great pride in their ethnicity.

"Black like you, Black like me, Black like us, Black like me!"

"Black is beautiful!"

Orr Elementary School brought silly to the stage with an "I am" poem. Each kid approached the microphone and said something completely unpredictable and outrageous, and laughter ricocheted off the walls of the auditorium. The Jaguars finished their performance with an ode to rain set to the song "Drip Drop."

KIPP Quest brought the audience back to serious matters with an appropriate reaction to an event in their community -- a shooting. This was the second time in five years the students at the school, formerly Arts and Technology Academy, had to deal with violence right outside their building's doors. 

The Poetry Slam! stage provided what it did then, too -- a safe place for the kids to express their feelings. They did so in a well-rounded way that demonstrated how proud they are to represent their community and also what needs to change. They started with group poems about "urban rappers" and how good they can be, and followed that up with a fun "If I was a rapper" poem.

The rapper in me is an urban poet

The rapper in us goes to KIPP DC

See all rappers are not bad

They go to college and get degrees

And then Shine Award winner M'kya S. punctuated the performance with a solo poem and dropped the mic with this:

"The next time you want to shoot, shoot with cameras -- not guns"

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Words, words

Words have power

Words have power
Words have power

Moten Elementary School's poets were the second team under the bright lights and they helped set the stage for the night.

Whether teams were educating about breast cancer, decrying violence in their community, showing how fun it is to be goofy, embracing their skin color, or boxing to the beat of their words, all poet-athletes on stage embraced themselves and their teams. 

And that was more than enough.

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Elementary Schools 
1st place — Aiton Elementary School
2nd place — Beers Elementary School
3rd place — Burrville  Elementary School
Spirit Award — J.C. Nalle Elementary School
Shine Award — M'kya S., KIPP QUEST

Middle Schools \
1st place — Jefferson Middle School
2nd place — Hart Middle School
3rd place — KIPP KEY
Spirit Award — Eliot-Hine Middle School
Shine Award — Lorenzo J., KIPP KEY

Teamwork on full display during Westside DC SCORES Poetry Slam!

KIPP WILL won the Golden Mic trophy in its first Poetry Slam!.

As the winners of Wednesday night's Westside DC SCORES Poetry Slam! were announced, emcee Charity Blackwell repeatedly asked for just team captains and coaches of schools to come to the stage and receive their trophies.

Yet team after team brought dozens of kids, all running down the aisles and up onto the stage to receive the hardware from special guests Briana Scurry and Ben Olsen.

At the culminating event of the fall DC SCORES season, it was clearer than ever how strong and together the 20 schools' teams of poet-athletes are. Kids didn't want to leave their peers behind. Whether winning the Spirit Award or first place, they made sure to celebrate together.

And what a celebration the Poetry Slam! was. In front of a standing-room-only audience inside Columbia Heights Education Campus' auditorium, one school after another demonstrated the fruits of 12 weeks of writing labor.

Great lines ranged from issue-driven ("We are not criminals and our schools are secure enough without them." — H.D. Cooke) to commanding ("Quit, we don't quit. Quit. Never heard of it." — Garrison) to funny ("So lock your door; slam, click, ahhhhhhh," repeated Raymond's kids with faces painted to look like zombies).

All lines were accompanied by movements, hand gestures and props. Whether it was a small team on stage or Lincoln Middle School's team of close to 40, every kid knew where to be throughout the night.

It was the result of a 12-week curriculum that began in September with kids learning the basic structure of a poem, was followed by many writing sessions, and concluded with performance-technique lessons and, of course, plenty of practice.

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LaSalle Backus EC was one of three schools that performed at the Poetry Slam! for the first time.

The winning schools spanned the spectrum of DC SCORES' 20-year history and 17 years of hosting now DC's largest youth Poetry Slam!.

There was flagship school Marie Reed, decked out in their customary orange soccer uniforms, putting together a strong performance about being yourself and not wavering to win the elementary school Golden Mic trophy.

The Reed kids concluded their performance by taking up every square foot of the stage and holding up about 20 signs representing the countries the students' families are from. "So many cultures in one place can surely brighten your day," everyone said in unison.

And then there was KIPP WILL, a school that had DC SCORES writing for the first time this fall but looked far from nervous under the bright lights. KIPP's performance about love and freedom — highlighted by Jordan S.' poignant poem about learning from his grandmother — won them the middle school Golden Mic trophy.

Marie Reed won the Golden Mic trophy in its 17th Poetry Slam!.

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Councilmember David Grosso got the night started!

After emcees Charity and Cortney Hicks kicked off the Slam!, special guest Councilmember David Grosso took the stage and read a poem by Langston Hughes. An innovator like Hughes would've been proud of the creativity and spoken word that captivated the capacity audience for three hours Wednesday night.

As we have documented with our blog series on Brightwood Education Campus, there are many steps taken to get to this point. So it was no surprise that when kids ran up the aisles to receive those gleaming trophies from Scurry (the World Cup-winning and Olympic-gold earning goalkeeper) and Olsen (who was named Major League Soccer's coach of the year Wednesday), emotions were high.

When Jency, a girl from Barnard Elementary School, won the Shine Award for best individual performance, she was overcome by the moment and cried tears of joy as Olsen gave her a big hug. A minute later, there were more tears as Brightwood received the second-place award. 

And then the entire Marie Reed team took the stage, raised up the large and heavy Golden Mic trophy, and capped off a night that demonstrated the power of teamwork — not just on a soccer field, but on stage, too.

Below is the full list of winners from the first night of the 17th Annual DC SCORES Poetry Slam!. 

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Elementary Schools 
1st place — Marie Reed Elementary School
2nd place — Brightwood Education Campus
3rd place — Seaton Elementary
School Spirit Award — Truesdell Education Campus
Shine Award — Jency. M, Barnard

Middle Schools 
1st place — KIPP WILL
2nd place — Lincoln Middle School
3rd place — Truesdell Education Campus
Spirit Award — Chavez Prep
Shine Award — Madelin G., Lincoln

Meet Inspired Art Gala honoree, D.C. United coach Ben Olsen

D.C. United head coach Ben Olsen (photo: Steve Dykes)

On May 17, D.C. United head coach Ben Olsen will accept the Inspiration Award at the third Annual Inspired Art Gala for his work promoting youth development through soccer in the District.


Olsen will be presented the award by John Harkes, an avid supporter of America SCORES programs throughout the country. Harkes has quite the soccer background, having been named to the National Soccer Hall of Fame after a career that included two MLS titles with D.C. United. 

Olsen is the face of soccer in the District, having played for United from 1998-2009 and now in his second full season as head coach. As a player, Olsen was named the 1998 MLS Rookie of the Year and helped lead United to the MLS title in 1999.

Recently, Olsen took a few minutes out of his busy schedule leading second-place United to chat about what it’s like to be DC’s most recognizable soccer figure:

Q: You obviously started playing soccer at a young age. From your experience, what impact does playing on a soccer team growing up have on youth? What values does it instill? 

A: Playing soccer from such a young age has a huge impact – especially because of the level of involvement I had. The friendships and bonds I have made are unbreakable and the experiences have been unforgettable. A few of the biggest values that I have taken from the game, and that I try and instill upon our players today, is having a great work-ethic and making sure you are 100% committed at all times. These values not only translate to success on the soccer field, but for other people across different careers.

Q: How much does it mean to you to be coaching the team you were always associated with during your player career? 

A: D.C. is my home and being able to coach the most storied MLS club is a huge honor that I don’t take lightly. I gave everything to this club when I was playing and continue to do so today as a coach. So at the end of the day, it is a special feeling to be a part of the D.C. United family.

Q: What's your favorite part about being a coach? 

A: My favorite part about coaching is being able to guide people in the right direction and help orchestrate a team that gives everything, every single time they step on the field.

Q: What's the most frustrating thing about being on the sideline? 

A: The most frustrating part of being on the sideline and coaching is that I don’t get to play in the games anymore.

Q: How many games are United going to win this year and how many MLS championships are you going to celebrate during your coaching career? 

A: My number one priority is to get this team to the playoffs and to win the MLS Cup.