Piano Slam’s Music-Poetry Mashup Rocks

Kai Subhawong was a sixth grader at George Washington Carver Middle School who had never really written poetry – until he he took to the stage to perform an original poem in front of countless people at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts for the 2023 Piano Slam.

“It really showed me something that I didn’t know about myself,” he said. “I thought I’d have stage fright but when I performed in front of all those people it felt great – I didn’t have stage fright anymore.”

Piano Slam is an annual writing competition held in Miami-Dade County schools that culminates with semifinalists performing their work in a fully choreographed stage show that mashes the art form of spoken-word poetry with music. The program gives students like Subhawong a platform to be heard and to grow in a uniquely creative environment.

This year, for its 17th iteration, students from 41 middle and high schools are competing for a chance to perform on stage. Those chosen as semifinalists will be accompanied by the music of legendary Cuban composer Chucho Valdés when they perform at the Arsht’s Knight Concert Hall April 11.

Carlene Sawyer, CEO of the Dranoff 2 Piano Foundation and the creator and producer of Piano Slam, originally started with a goal of bringing classical music into the county’s public schools.

“The mission was to open the door with music,” she said. “Music and poetry are sister art forms, organized sound communicating information and emotion.”

This revelation led to a partnership with what was then a brand-new Arsht Center, which was looking for ways to improve its community outreach efforts.

“We started the poetry competition with the Arsht … and the Knight Concert Hall was offered as the place where those young artists would perform with professional classical music,” Sawyer said.

The first Piano Slam was held in 2007, and it became clear that the blend of writing and music would be the key to the event’s staying power.

“Writing is the key to everything … I don’t know that we’d still be in the schools all these years later if it were just the music,” said Sawyer. “First year, we had four schools, and the second

year we had 28.”

For every Piano Slam, an artist is commissioned to create a piece based around that year’s theme. This year’s is “My Music, Miami, All We Can Save – Rhythms & Writings of Restoration,” with seven-time Grammy- and four-time Latin Grammy-award winner Chucho Valdés serving as the 2024 artist.

“We just said that, you know, this is someone who needs to have a new commissioned piece out there that we need to step up to celebrate the work that he does,” said Sawyer.

The piece Valdés composed is inspired by child prodigy José Manuel “Lico” Jiménez, an Afro-Cuban pianist and composer who lived between 1851-1917, and whose work inspired Valdés. Coming full circle, the Valdés composition will inspire a new group of young artists.

“I am so proud that my piece, ‘Suite Afro Cubana to Lico Jiménez,’ was selected to be part of Piano Slam 2024,” said Valdés. “This program and its young generation of poets will help us keep alive Lico’s name and legacy in our culture.”

Precious Symonette, who teaches creative writing at Miami Norland Senior High School, has involved her students in Piano Slam since the very beginning.

“I look forward to every single year, and that all of my students participate in it because it is more than just a competition,” said Symonette, “There is not another concept like Piano Slam in the world. It is truly one of a kind.”

She began to see a change in the way students approached creative writing almost immediately.

“When I first talked to the students about writing a poem like an advanced academic’s course, students were not willing to do it. They were not engaged,” Symonette said. “So, I decided to introduce Piano Slam through my creative writing courses … students feel freer. They feel as if they can express themselves, they feel as if they can do it.”

Students who have competed in past Piano Slams have shared a similar sentiment. The platform offered by the competition and the Arsht stage gives them the conviction to be creative.

“I submitted just to get an A," said 2017 participant Ayeisha Kirkland. “Little did I know I’d end up at the Arsht Center later.”

Kirkland is a testament to long-term impacts of Piano Slam. After performing at age 12 the now 20-year-old has since returned to the organization as a poetry coach and still performs spoken word to this day.

“I believe when I got to the performance, the potential inside me was unlocked,” she said. “I felt like a professional … as a young performer it was mind-blowing to be a part of something so grand.”

Cheryl Fiffe, selected for Piano Slam 2021, feels that treating students as professionals instills confidence to speak out on issues that affect them.

“I think young people are sometimes told that we don’t know enough, or we’ll understand when we’re older,” she said. “But we’re seeing it now, we do understand what’s happening and we should be allowed to have a voice, to have our opinions and share them.”

It is all these elements that make Piano Slam such a unique event, where students transform into performers.

“It’s a promise,” said Sawyer. “A promise of a really good time and a moment of pride and shock of how great these kids are.”

Piano Slam 2024 is free to attend, but tickets are required. They may be obtained online at ArshtCenter.org or by calling the Arsht Center box office at 305.949.6722.