By Evangeline Lacroix

Young Chicago Authors (YCA), famed for their creation of Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB) slam poetry competition is coming to Lane to teach.

The program (which started the week of Dec. 3) will run until mid January in the Creative Writing II class, run by English Teacher Mr. Telles. Students are being taught a mini unit of curriculum created by YCA students that focuses on slam and spoken word poetry.

Slam poetry is a performance poetry that gained popularity in the 1990s among the youth of Chicago, and eventually the nation, when the Get Me High lounge, and later the Green Mill started poetry nights and open mics.

Slam poems often have a political theme. Poets draw upon racial, economic, gender inequalities, and current events as inspiration.

“I think it is cool,” Telles said. “[Slam] takes poetry and moves it into this more contemporary light. It takes it from these old dead white authors and moves it to this cooler thing. It embraces the hip-hop culture, the urbanness, the rawness, and the youth of poetry.”

Lane was given this opportunity because of the long history the school has had with YCA. Lane has been a part of the LTAB community for a while, sending the Lane Slam Team to the yearly competition for the past eight years.

“I think it is a great opportunity,” Telles said. “I think spoken word poetry is a viable and vibrant medium.”

These lessons, will be taught by Mr. Telles. A Teaching Artist, provided by YCA, will come to the class one time to facilitate a workshop. This will be a test run for future Creative Writing II classes.

“If my students respond to the [lessons] well, I will do it every year,” Telles said. “I will maybe even extend it into a full quarter unit.”

Currently, a couple dozen other Chicago schools have a chapter of YCA.

As a part of the project, YCA will host a poetry slam open to Lane students who can potentially win prizes.

Lane will also be hosting the 2014 North Side Regional Competition for LTAB on Jan. 18.