The event took place at the Old Rep Theatre in Birmingham on Sunday 3rd February and saw Jonah Corren, Hannah Ledlie, Chloe Bettles, Memory Bhunu and Jamie Thrasivoulou up against three other top teams.

The team performed four poems on a variety of topics including family, experiences with anti-Semitism and Pride festival, as well as a group piece about the poets’ hometowns.

Third-year English and Creative Writing student, Chloe Bettles, noted that the team’s cultural and stylistic diversity allowed their poems to ‘show shared experiences as well as supporting the individuality of each poet.’ Her coursemate and teammate, Hannah Ledlie, agreed, suggesting that their ‘great variety of themes and perspectives’ is what made the team so strong.

As Literary Events Coordinator for Writer’s Bloc, UoB’s creative writing society, Jonah Corren organised auditions for this year’s team in November last year. The competitive process saw Hannah Ledlie as the only poet maintaining her position in the team from last year.

A massive well done to the University of Birmingham for winning UniSlam 2019 ??✨✨ pic.twitter.com/QSuArVU8NZ

— Uni Slam (@Uni_Slam) February 4, 2019

Rehearsals for the competition began immediately following auditions and were led by a current UoB PhD student, Sean Colletti. As an experienced poet previously shortlisted for Birmingham’s Poet Laureate and, having recently published a pamphlet with Bare Fiction Press, Colletti was able to help choose poets and perfect performance techniques. His role as the team’s coach was ‘beyond important to the whole process,’ said Corren.

The University’s success in last year’s competition left many of this year’s team members feeling pressured when approaching the competition because, according to Hannah Ledlie, ‘there was an expectation on us to do well.’ Memory Bhunu also noted the ‘ridiculous amount of pressure […] to live up to the previous years despite being a whole new team.’

Several team members claimed that their confidence, pride, and technical ability in performance poetry has improved during the experience. ‘Before UniSlam I had really big confidence issues and now I feel comfortable standing on a stage and sharing my ideas,’ said Bettles.

Along with their retained UniSlam title and trophy, the winning team was rewarded with a group performance spot at Verve Poetry Festival 2019 on Saturday 16th February and a place at the Hammer and Tongue National Team-Slam Finals 2020, held at the Royal Albert Hall.