Poetry: Uncultivated and Raw

Photo: Abel Saldana

Twelve poets from the surrounding Orange County spoken word community brought their best material to a competition hosted by UCI’s Uncultivated Rabbits in SSH 100 on February 20.

Despite initial delays and performers arriving late, as well as miscommunication regarding the rules of the Jack Rabbit Slam, the poets presented an array of gripping pieces on love, substance abuse, and sexism among other topics touching on social issues to an audience of about 100 people.

Although the lecture hall was left with over half of its seats empty, the turnout proved to be around the average for Uncultivated Rabbits competitions.

Jenna Allie was met with countless snaps and the “mmmms” of the audience members throughout her poem “Stay Safe,” a piece that depicted a lover who could never take risks in professing affection to her. She ended the poem by lowering her voice, and allowing the words to fade on a more somber note, garnering full applause from the audience rather than the traditional snapping.

52-year-old Don Vawter presented his poem “Garbage,” which discussed deplorable aspects of human behavior. His poetry marked a significant difference from that of the other poets, retaining gloominess in each of its themes that elicited few snaps from the audience members, but instead left them silent in thought.

20-year-old Taylor Flynn captured the audience with his piece “To the Preacher on the Bridge,” discussing the sermon of a preacher filled with bigotry and hatred towards vulnerable minority groups, invoking snaps and “mmmms” simply after having read the title of his poem, recognizable from previous performances.

Multiple readings were interrupted and cut short with the abrupt introduction of a three-minute performance limit, including those of Dash Teachout and Catie Trainor, resulting in Trainor’s withdrawal form the competition and departure from the building.

“I didn’t know about the three minute thing, and I don’t write short shit, so I’m not finishing this poem either,” said Teachout prior to reading her piece, “The Bus” during the second round. Her poem was cut short like the previous one with music that was played, signaling the end of her available time.

After two hours covering three rounds in the competition, and three poems from each of the performers, prizes were awarded and the winners were declared.

Chestina Craig took third place and an Uncultivated Rabbits t-shirt with an 8.6.

Kaelyn Reneé took second and earned a guaranteed spot in the Rabbits’ chat book with an 8.7.

Jenna Allie took first with a 9.3, and will be allowed to perform with the Rabbits at their upcoming Spring Showcase.

The results were average scores granted to the three poems from each performer out of 10.

“I was nervous. I’ve never performed in such a big group before,” said Taylor regarding what it was like speaking onstage. “Since it was a slam, I wanted to perform something that was slam style, with social issues. Every time I get off stage, my heart is racing.”

At the end of the performance, the Rabbits completed their tradition that dates back 11 years to when the group was first founded, in which all in attendance performers stood at the front of the lecture hall and placed their hands in the middle of a huddle, and were instructed to say “reproduce.”

Hosts Torrin Greathouse and Sabrina Mansury Sharifi enacted the dialogue necessary for the explanation of the Rabbits’ tradition.

When asked why they must say reproduce, Sharifi responded by declaring, “It’s a play on our organization’s name Uncultivated Rabbits, uncultivated like produce is cultivated, but we’re uncultivated, and we’re raw and wild, and expressive, and rabbits, and what do rabbits like to do? They like to fu- reproduce, so everyone on the count of three say reproduce!”