#cupsi

[bonbonthecartoon]

A quien les gusta mis personajes

[buttonpoetry]

In therapy, you said you wouldn’t make it to 21. On my twenty-first birthday, I thought about you. You were right.

Ethan Smith, "A Letter to the Girl I Used to Be" (CUPSI 2014)

[bostonpoetryslam]

Tonight at the Cantab, it’s a CUPSI warmup slam! Teams from Emerson College, Wellesley College, Smith College, Northeastern University, and Lesley University will face off in a fierce competition to prepare for the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational next month. And before the show, we’ll have a generative writing workshop led by Sophia Holtz.

[mcmontague]

Suspect

You call me suspect As if there were anything criminal about my love

I’d be the first to admit it I was at the scene of the crime Leaving evidence behind on chapped lips and discarded jackets No caution could have warned me about the shit show that was my mother The night I missed my curfew after being out with some girl If I am the number 1 suspect She is merely my accomplice

I swear I would have turned myself in

But some days it already feels like I’m in a cell Where the walls are made up of “You’re just making things harder for yourself” “This isn’t something we do” The key to letting me out is you understanding that this is not a choice But even if it were I wouldn’t trade away this life of crime for your love

Because your love is putting in a box I could never call home Your love is putting me on trial Your love is ignoring a key piece of evidence just to get the conviction So no I won’t trade this life away for your love

Because when she and I are on the lam together It feels free-er than any cell you could put me in Holier than any saving grace you could give me

I swear I’m an honest person I would have turned myself in But this crime It carries a sentence that I just can’t bear yet

So call me a runaway Call me a problem-child Call me disagreeable Or temperamental But don’t you call me suspect As if there were anything criminal about my love

- M.C. Mont 9.1.17

[spitshinepoetry]

Help send UT Spitshine to CUPSI 2018!

Support 'Help send UT Spitshine to CUPSI 2018!' by donating or sharing today!

Every year, UT Spitshine sends a team of 5 poets to CUPSI (a national collegiate level poetry competition). Support the team by donating and sharing the fundraiser! Any amount helps <3

[catbountry]

So thanks to Izzy, I’ve recently found out that at a slam poetry contest, the founder of the genre basically got excommunicated for reading the most benign criticisms of the upper-class leftists, (snapping instead of clapping is, in fact, the most groan-worthy thing in the entire universe, confirmed) and like half of the audience crossed their arms and turned their backs on him like literal children, and then decided that it wasn’t a contest anymore after he left of his own accord. Already people are trying to scrub mentions of him or downplay his significance on Wikipedia. And if you read it coming from them, they were all very brave and/or strong for telling him to fuck off because he said “third world,” which is OFFENSIVE LIKE YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

Only the first link actually provides the poems in question. As for the rest, everybody says they were very awful, take their word for it. One was misogynistic because he made a poem about resenting being reduced to an “old white man” by another poet, who was a woman of color. That absolute monster.

I mean, it’s really not surprising that a bunch of slam poets are a bunch of pretentious, overly-sensitive jackasses with their heads up their own ass, but if we’re getting to the point where a genre leader is shunned for this shit and being accused of “silencing” other poets when he did no such thing, then I guess the arts are fucked.

I don’t want to be in this club.

Also, what happened to that prize money? I guess anybody hoping to compete for it could go fuck themselves, eh?

Pricks.

[alwaysthegoodthings]

Coming Out Eulogies (For the Victims of Pulse)

I wrote a poem for the victims of the Pulse shooting and their families. I dedicate it to everyone impacted by the event. To any LGBTQ+ family who is still in the closet. I pray that we will remain united: through fear, grief, anger, and frustration. I also pray for a day where we no longer have to be afraid. When we are no longer treated as "other". For those outside of the community I pray this poem brings understanding, empathy, and appreciation. I hope this poem reminds you all that you're not alone and keeps you inspired when brighter days aren't in sight.

[caesuralesbian]

Support the Arts!

Hey, wanna support 4 young queer artists? 

Me and my poetry team are trying to go to CUPSI (College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational) in Chicago this April, but we need help with the costs of travel. 

All of us have worked super hard crafting pieces that our important to our identities and communities. My teammates and I have written some incredible pieces about police brutality, racism, misogyny, rape culture, nonbinary gender identity, Trump, body image, mental and reproductive health, and so on, and by donating to our GoFundMe, you can help us bring a voice to these pieces on a national level. 

The Baton Rouge poetry community has been through a lot in the past year. Our city was (further) divided by the Alton Sterling case and destroyed by the flooding in August, and on a more individual level, we lost an important member of our community, my friend and teammate Kaiya. In the months following all of these tragedies, our poetry scene has been an incredible healing space and like family to me. This opportunity would really be a blessing to us, as we’d love to bring Baton Rouge’s story to Chicago and have the opportunity to learn and heal with artists from around the nation.

We have been fundraising locally, but the costs of travel are high, and we still need more help. If you’d like to support marginalized voices and the arts, you can donate at https://www.gofundme.com/lsu-cupsi-team

Any amount will help us out and it will be hugely appreciated!