Ethan Sloan ’16 | Staff Writer

One stage. One microphone. One poet. Lauren Pankin ’16 placed first in the Mackinac Island Poetry Slam on Saturday, May 17.

“I was surprised,” Pankin said. “ I thought I got third place because there was another slammer who got up there and cried on stage.”

Each slammer reads three poems in three separate rounds, said student teacher and poetry mentor Tom Budday. Each poem must be original and last less than three minutes and ten seconds, or there will be a point deduction.  Then the five judges score each poem ranging from one to ten, one being the lowest and ten being the highest. The highest and lowest scores are dropped, and the other three are averaged.

“It [the judging] is more about getting people involved in poetry,” said Budday.

The amount of people in attendance fluctuated throughout the day, starting at about 50 and reaching a peak of about 200, Pankin said.

Ten South students attended the slam, four were first time slammers, English teacher Harry Campion said.

Pankin is the first person from South to win first place at the Mackinac Slam, Budday said.  Paul Attard ’15 placed fifth overall.

Pankin read her poems “An Education”, “God Bless” and “America the Beautiful”.

“It (slamming) gives kids a voice. I think that’s the most important thing,” Pankin said. “Regardless of what you get up there and say, it’s an opportunity to be heard, it’s an opportunity to have someone there watching you in the audience who is an empathetic listener, and that’s something you don’t really get as a teenager.”

This was Pankin’s first time slamming at Mackinac and her seventh time slamming overall, she said.

“I always get really excited when I read. It’s actually one of the best feelings ever,” Pankin said.  “I get really nervous beforehand, but the second I start reading I just feel really happy up there. It’s like you’re impacting the audience in some way and that’s a very powerful feeling.”

Attard read his poems “#realtalk”, “Sunshine in America” and “Words my Father Refuses to Hear”. This was his first time slamming ever.

“It was an interesting experience,” Attard said.

After nine years of coaching Mackinac slammers, this will be Budday’s last year working with South students, because he is moving to Champagne, Ill. at the end of June, Campion said.

“I’m going to miss the weekly workshops the most,” Budday said. “It’s something to look forward to each week.”