Throughout National Poetry Month, The Daily sat down with Slam Society members to hear what poetry means to them. Their poems touch on everything from gender to race to childhood memories, bringing younger voices to a timeless medium.

“I think now, especially after taking poetry classes and things, seeing more of the structure of poetry and some of the rules, I think more of the fun comes from knowing what some of the rules are and breaking them to make something really unique and special.”
— Kourtni McNeil, Weinberg sophomore

To read the full transcript of this episode, click here.

“The reason I do it is just making jokes through wordplay and puns. And always trying to come back to some sort of message that means something to me. But it really does start from a place of just trying to make a sequence of word-related jokes.”
— Eric Hochberger, Weinberg junior

To read the full transcript of this episode, click here.

“A lot of people kind of view poetry as this dead medium and think of poetry as like Robert Frost and Walt Whitman and all these dead white guys who had their form of poetry. But it’s such a living, breathing thing, and I’m just very passionate about it.”
— Rachael Zisk, Medill sophomore

To read the full transcript of this episode, click here.