A powerful performance of a poem about the plight of child soldiers around the world was the winning entry in this year’s One World Centre Poetry Slam held at St Ninian’s Lower School earlier this month.
Performing in front of an audience of students and parents, twelve teams of Year 7 students took part in the finals of the competition which required them to write and present a poem on the subject of child soldiers, water and sanitation, refugees or education for girls.
The winning team, whose poem was called They Will Not Listen, was from St Ninian’s High School and included Lucy Barks, Anna Harris, Emily Sweetman and Frankie Cullen. As well as picking up the trophy, the team will be given a chance to perform the poem in public as part of the Manx Litfest activities later in the year.
Runners up were a team from Ballakermeen with a poem entitled Someplace Under the Sea about refugees, and two other teams from Ballakermeen also joint third places with The Lost Children on child soldiers and Under the Sea on refugees.
The event was attended by the Manx Bard, Stacey Astill, who read two of her own poems and who was also on the judging panel. Other judges included teachers Eilish Matthews from Castle Rushen High School and Leona Bell from Ramsey Grammar School. They were joined by Joel Smith, the secondary advisor from the Department of Education and Children, and had the unenviable job of choosing the winning poems on the night.
Rosemary Clarke, Director of the One World Centre, said: “It was a really thought-provoking evening with some vivid interpretations of how difficult life is for many people around the world. All the student teams had worked hard on crafting their poems and their performances were excellent. It was very difficult for the judges to choose a winner and all the teams should be very proud of their efforts.”
The One World Poetry Slam is one of a number of projects run by the One World Centre to help school students on the Isle of Man learn about global issues. Other initiatives include the One World Charity Challenge for Year 12 students, the It’s Not Fair! short film competition and an annual Fairtrade conference for primary schools.
Photo - The winning Poetry Slam team from St Ninian’s High School, from left: Emily Sweetman, Lucy Barks, Anna Harris and Frankie Cullen.
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