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VCU going to National Championships: For Slams, not Slamdunks

Posted at 6:22 PM, Feb 08, 2012
and last updated 2012-02-28 17:43:10-05

RICHMOND, Va (WTVR) -  Virginia Commonwealth University’s poetry slam team won the regional college championships and is heading to the national college championships in California in April.

The award-winning  Slam Nahuatl poetry team, a new addition to VCU, has excelled because its members mix it up with passion, humor and deep thinking.

During Wednesday night’s team slam at the SPARC theater on Hamilton Street, there was a ditty about the power of a monster crush on a middle school teacher, another about what it’s like to be a modern slave to college loans so sweetly sold the brainwashed and a humorous but ultimately telling poem about society’s fixation on color.

Slam Nahuatl is named after Aztec word that means “good, clear sound,” said team leader Hamilton Graziano, the grandson of City Councilwoman Kathy Graziano. “In Aztec culture, in times of peace warriors would lead the community through their words and through the oral tradition . . . Our motto is to uplift the community through the arts.”