SEPoS wins spoken-word contest

South East Port of Spain Secondary School is the champion of this year’s Raise the Bar (RTB) spoken-word poetry competition hosted by the 2 Cents Movement.

Students gave thought-provoking performances in each of the three rounds at the grand finale at San Fernando Central Secondary School on Friday.

The Nelson Streetschool, also known as eSSSays, placed secondto St George’s College last year.

Mishael Henry captained the winning team which also included Monique George, Learnado Seepaulsingh, Shaniqua Shade, Risiyah Walcott and Kyla Phillip.

Coach Idrees Saleem beamed with pride when the announcement was made yesterday afternoon.

After the students collected their trophy, the spoken-word artiste joined them in singing and dancing to the popular God’s Plan by Canadian rapper Drake.

Speaking to Newsday, he praised the students for their hard work, adding that he has been with them from conception to final performance.

Saleem said, “South East Port of Spain Secondary School is a hub of very intelligent and very talented young men and women who want to see a change in Trinidad, and they believe it starts from them, and they are doing the work out there. I am very proud of them.”

Second place went to Arima North Secondary, and St George’s College placed third.

The five other completing schools were San Fernando West Secondary, Bishop's (Tobago), Valencia Secondary, Bon Air Secondary and St Augustine Girls’ High.

The eight schools faced five judges: Muhammad Muwakil, Jamie Philbert, Shineque Saunders, Seychelle Thomas and Kyle Amos.

RTB is a slam competition and the culmination of the national secondary school spoken word festival. AMarketing/social media co-ordinator Kurleen John of the 2 Cents Movement said this year tackled the important issues of ending gang violence and extremism.