Grassroots Magazine is an SIUC student run magazine that showcases artworks submitted by SIU students, CCHS students, and community members alike. Some submit photography, others songs, but most submit poetry. The Grassroots Magazine hosted a poetry slam. The event held in the Student Center’s Big Muddy Room was a bit of a safe space for the artistically minded and community oriented. Including our classmate, Christopher Jerrell. 

“I think it’s a great magazine. It really connects the community and allows for people to express their creativity and show others their artwork”.

And for this new publication, the group decided to accept nearly every submission! Making their slam a fun show and allowing our classmates to showcase their poems. Including our own Adah Mays.

“This is a very fun experience and poetry and this environment is definitely for me. My poem was called “A Dream for the Unseen” and it was about the stigmas, and pressures placed on Black people.”

Many members of our community use poetry to express themselves, and this was pretty obvious from many of the performances.

“I use poetry as an outlet for my emotions, I don’t like to really express them out loud so I write them down as poetry and it just comes out like that.”