J.R. Brown, a junior at Wayne State College, is one of the helpers for the Poetry Slam which takes place at the Max Bar and Grill on March 3 at 7 p.m. 

“The Max has been kind enough to let us use their facility for as long as I can remember, hopefully it will continue to go on there for years to come,” Brown said. 

Brown invites anyone who wants to come and compete, to show up around 6:30 p.m. to sign up. 

“With signing up you should have four poems ready and 5 dollars for a competition fee,” Brown said. 

Brown puts a lot of work into making the poetry slam work and making sure everything is set up the way it should. 

“We have to promote for the slam which is a lot of designing and distributing posters online and around campus,” Brown said. 

Brown said that the to-do list is long but well worth all that goes into it to entertain a crowd of people who genuinely appreciate what we do. 

“We gather donations, arrange for musical guests, set up, tear down, it’s a lot of work but everyone enjoys it and it’s well worth all that goes into it to get peoples writing out there,” Brown said. 

Brown encourages all people to come and just watch even you’re not a writer it’s one of the major elements to why the slams are so fun 

“Although it is a competition, we are all here trying to get better as writers and just have fun, it’s all about spreading the love and sharing your hard work,” Brown said. 

“For the Poetry Slam, we went with a Nicholas Cage theme,” Brown said. “Like I said, we’re just trying to have fun with the whole thing on top of cash prizes we have little weird Nicholas Cage things in the prize baskets, but I’ll have to come down and watch the slams to find out what they are.” 

Sharon Carr, professor in the Language and Literature Department, has one of her Editing for Publication students head the planning. 

“The rest of the class helps the slam master with advertising the slam, finding slam prize donations, and planning out a theme for the slam,” Carr said. 

Carr helps the slam master students, but they mainly have a lot of control over how the slam goes 

“This year’s theme is Nicholas Cage which means all the advertising is themed around Nicholas Cage memes, and even some of the prizes follow that theme,” Carr said. 

Carr encourages all people to come out to the slam because it’s fun, unique experience. 

“We are one of the longest running slams in the state of Nebraska, it’s a great way to get your writing out there in front of a live audience, or to just come and listen to other students work it’s always a lot of fun,” Carr said 

Carr lets her students take control of the event and putting everything together 

“I’m a gentle guide for the students when needed, I help with scheduling and when things need to be done,” Carr said. 

“I like to check in with the slam masters regularly to see what they need from me or if they need assistance with anything, I’ve been involved with the slams since 2014, so I can pass along a lot of experience and some perspective on what works and what doesn’t,” Carr said.