Jacob Dec

Assistant Sports Editor

The newest club at Blue Springs South is Louder Than a Bomb.

Louder Than a Bomb is competitive slam poetry where poets read or recite original work. These performances are usually judged by selected members of the audience or by a panel of judges. Louder Than a Bomb was created by Mark Coval and Anna West in 2001 in Chicago. The goal of slam poetry is to get kids to not only share their stories, but listen to the voices of those from other schools they would otherwise never hear.

English teachers Marlee Bunch and Janis Schuberth are the sponsors for Louder Than a Bomb. Bunch sponsored the program at Raytown High School from 2013 to 2015. She explained why she decided to bring Louder Than a Bomb to South.

“I wanted to promote our community’s voices so they could be acknowledged at South.” Bunch said.

Slam poetry is predominantly spoken very quickly and usually has the delivery style of hip-hop music. This year, Schuberth decided to disassemble the creative writing club Ink Blots and decided to co-sponsor Louder Than a Bomb. Schuberth talked about why she made this decision.

“There just wasn’t very much interest in Ink Blots around South and I knew Louder Than a Bomb would get much more interest here,” Schuberth said.

Schuberth and Bunch kept 19 students on the team out of the 35 who tried out. Members include Sophmores Ashley Cole, Hailey Lara, Gage Schrader and Talysa Wilson. Juniors include RJ Appleberry, Natalie Burkett, Jourdon Huntley, Tavarus Pennington, Sydney Rowland and Lee Steiner. Senoirs include Megan Bishop, Jordan Jackson, Sareen Khakh, Libby Matson, Alyssa Newell, Zoie Reynolds, Taylor Scott, Liberty Smith and Kiley Tuckness.

“This year’s team has lots of talent and a bunch of diversity in the group which will help us at competitions.” Bunch said.

Louder Than a Bomb meets every week in room 316.