A Day in the Life of a New Slam Poet

Ulladulla High School as part of StoryFest 2023 with Miles Merrill

 Thursday 15 June 2023 

9am: Fourteen-year-old Emily watches two poets from Word Travels perform for 200 year nine students at Ulladulla High School as part of StoryFest 2023.  

10:30am: Emily signs up for a spoken word workshop and writes her first ever poem in tears. The poem is about how her dad told her, “I’m proud of you”.

1:30pm: She performs her poem for the NSW Governor and 450 students at her school.

8:17pm: Emily decides to perform her poem at Milton Theatre with an audience of 180 people as part of the Australian Poetry Slam South Coast Poetry Slam. Her dad is in the audience filming her on his phone. He stops filming and starts to cry. He runs to the stage as the audience applauds her final line. He hugs Emily and says something only she can hear.

9pm: The audience chooses Emily as South Coast Poetry Slam Champion. Emily is invited to perform at the APS NSW Final in Sydney on 7 October.

You can watch Emily perform at the NSW State Final on 7 October 2023. We’ll be releasing tickets in our upcoming newsletter and on our website.

Through our education programs, we share the craft of poetry and performance with students around the country. In our interactive workshops, Word Travels poets connect with young people and empower them to tell their own stories.  Find out more about our youth and education program and our workshops for all ages here.

Ulladulla High School as part of StoryFest 2023 with Andrew Cox