By Stacy Cruz
Staff Writer
Brave New Voices, or BNV, is an annual poetry festival that attracts hundreds of young poets, their mentors and the organizations that sponsor them from all over the country. Sachs will participate in BNV from July 14-19 representing the organization Get Lit, which immerses teenagers in the world of both literature and poetry.
“The competition will teach us slam poetry, which is a little different than what I normally read and write,” Sachs said. “It will be cool to look at poetry in this way.”
This year, Get Lit determined its team by hosting its own slam. A slam is a specific poetry competition that is often scored by judges. Sachs won the slam, which gave her the spot on this year’s BNV team.
“I have seen Miriam perform at many different events, and her passion is always so clear,” junior Kellie Mullin said. “Miriam has a way of capturing an audience whenever and wherever she performs, and it is amazing to witness. I bet she will do great in the competition.”
According to Sachs, she is still in the process of writing the different poems that she will perform at BVM. Within her team, she will be participating in several group poems, which are written and recited by more than one team member.
“Group poems can be really dynamic because you come at an issue from two distinct perspectives,” said Sachs. “I’m currently working on one with my friend Jessica about the different reactions that parents give you when you tell them you’re in a relationship.”
Of the 18 new 2014-15 Get Lit Players, six are players on Sachs’ competition team. All players are students that are between the ages of 16 and 19 years old and attend schools all over the South Bay area. However, Sachs is the only player on the team from Costa.
“I love everyone who is involved with the team, and we are all incredibly close,” Sachs said. “The competition is going to be an awesome experience.”
According to Sachs, she is inspired by everything in her everyday life as well as various works and forms of art and poetry. According to Sachs, she especially loves poetry because it can be whatever the writer wants it to be and can take on any form without needing to make sense.
“Everyone can interpret it differently and get whatever they want out of it,” Sachs said. “I think it’s one of the coolest art forms because it is so free, and freeing to write and read as well.”
Sachs has been writing for the majority of her life, but she first began writing poetry in the sixth grade. Nearly a year ago, she discovered spoken word poetry and has since performed in many Get Lit competitions and open mics at The Actors’ Gang, an experimental theatre and non-profit group based in Culver City, as well as the Coffee Cartel, a coffee shop in Redondo Beach.
“To me, poetry is a way of reflecting and understanding myself, my emotions and the world around me,” Sachs said. “It’s like talking to a really good friend; it’s a way of getting in touch with how I am feeling and what I am thinking.”
According to Sachs, she looks forward to gaining a new understanding of slam poetry from her experiences at BNV this summer. The festival has as many as 30 workshops and 50 events for its young poets to learn and grow from. The event is also featured on the HBO network to make the poets’ work visible to a larger audience.
“I don’t really care that much about winning, I’m mostly excited to just attend,” Sachs said. “There are a lot of workshops about all sorts of things, beyond just poetry, like social justice issues and LGBT activism, which is really cool.”
BNV is just one event in Sachs’ future with poetry. According to Sachs, she will never stop writing or reading poetry because it is her passion. To Sachs, it would be an amazing feat to publish a book of poetry or compile an anthology of her own work.
“I am probably going to at least minor in creative writing in college, and I will definitely continue to write just because I love it so much, and I cannot imagine life without writing,” Sachs said.
Leave a Reply