Amnesty International of VCU held a slam poetry event, Slamnesty, on Thursday, April 28, in partnership with Her Campus VCU that was catered by Yelp Eat 24.
Slamnesty, an open mic night focused on female empowerment, was held in the Commons Theatre and was open to everyone.
Jenna Ortiz, a member of Amnesty International, co-hosted with Allie Bailey from Her Campus VCU. Ortiz encouraged the crowd to “snap, clap, ooh and aw” as various participants performed. Students of all genders performed slam poems, stories and even songs about empowerment, love, diversity, Beyoncé, body positivity, representation and beauty. One student, Saiounia Hughley, wrote a poem about her love of food. Gabriel La Bossiere performed songs about love and empowerment, singing, “You are one with me and we are one with all.”
The performances were followed with further discussion involving the entire crowd with topics ranging from intersectionality to micro-aggressions and gender roles. Slamnesty is a bi-annual event hosted by Amnesty, a non-profit organization, which focuses on various social justice and human rights topics. Not every Slamnesty event focuses on female empowerment; for example, last semester the event focused on police brutality. The theme for the next Slamnesty event has not been announced.