02.18.2023 | Event Recap and Photos from Winterfest 2023 Poetry Open Mic and Slam

It was the second year in a row that Lowell Poetry Wheel filled up so many chairs that they had to bring out more! Of course, that may have been because it was cold and we were one of the few events happening indoors, but surely it had something to do with the poetry. This year, we had a double Samurai slam because the youth poets from FreeVerse! who would be slamming later did the scores for the Mill City Speaks poets who went first, while the same slammers who rocked it earlier did the scoring for the youth poets in the second round. Neliksha Colon won the youth slam in her first-ever slam, while McKendy Fils-Aime won the adult round (not his first win), but all the other slammers (Sangeet Hayer, Soy Dixon, Lauren Strainge, Cayleigh B.) took home some cash before we opened up the mic and had veterans like Peter Vann and Joei DeSantos meet some newcomers and share more poetry. It was fun to get out of the groove and spread the word in town. Maybe a few of those newbies will end up at Coffee & Cotton on the first or third Wednesday of the month?