SLAM! Emotions pour onto stage, canvas at annual Two Eagle River Art Slam

PABLO — Emo. Goth. Punk. The words used to categorize teenage experiences into digestible stereotypes are numerous.

But what happens when a teen pours out emotion so raw and so honest that his words deny categorization?

A group of teens pose that very question each year at Two Eagle River School’s Annual Art Slam: a competition in which students present poetry, prose, music and artwork to be enjoyed, and judged, by their peers.

This year’s slam was held last Wednesday in the school’s common room which was packed with students and teachers, grouped on long benches and cafeteria tables.

“My strength begins to fail. Everyday I ask myself ‘will I be able to protect the things in this life that matter to me?’” senior Basil Kenmille asked his engrossed peers from a raised podium at the front of the room. “Everyday I face my inner demons, and with each day I put everything on the line, and I will continue to do this until this war is won…when that day comes I will truly discover what it means to have found my inner peace.”

Close your eyes and Kenmille’s voice, reciting the words that ultimately took the slam’s first place prize for prose, is one rich with the joy, pain and the wisdom of human experience. Not so easy to put a label on that.

If Kenmille and his peers manage to break free of the stereotype of the average teen, it’s because they’re not, by any means, average.

“They’re very down to earth,” says Rebekah Knudsen-Dalbey who has taught English and helped organize the art slam at Two Eagle for the last nine years.

“Students come here after other schools have failed them,” she explained.

The specific reasons that students transfer to this private, tuition-free school funded by the government and the tribes, are varied; some have been bullied, some have been labeled disruptive and been asked to leave, others have gotten pregnant and a number simply felt that they didn’t fit in.

“There’s a lot of talent and creativity that’s not being tapped,” Knudsen-Dalbey said about the many students who were scared to open up at their old schools, but blossom in Two Eagle’s supportive environment. “Our kids here see [Two Eagle] as a second home. It’s a safe haven.”

And thus the art slam, an event that invites students to let their creative juices flow and to take the risk of sharing highly personal writing with their peers.

Knudsen-Dalbey, who helps her students compose their poetry and prose, is interested in the academic aspects of the event, but says that it serves a larger purpose. It affords students the opportunity to take ownership of their emotions.

For a group of students who routinely deal with topics like addiction, abuse and suicide, there is power in acknowledging pain and sharing it with people who understand and empathize.

“I tell them to write about real life and to be really specific. Writing is cathartic,” Knudsen-Dalbey said. “Kids get up there and it’s definitely a release.”

On Wednesday afternoon, a large number of students felt that release as they shared their thoughts and experiences.

“Regret is like jumping off a bridge and wishing you hadn’t,” said one young woman. “You’re slowly falling out of life and you know this isn’t what you want.”

“Drugs, booze and blood,” read another girl. “I see these every day. And you wonder why I cry late at night.”

Knudsen-Dalbey added that completing a piece of writing and making it through the terrifying, experience of reading it aloud, adds to a student’s feeling of self-worth.

“Afterwards they feel good about themselves, they’re more empowered and confident. It’s a source of pride for them,” she said. “Students come in here who feel like failures, but when they get up there it’s a pretty big victory.”

Senior Basil Kenmille, who has been at Two Eagle since seventh grade, is one student who has felt the rush of that victory.

He recently spoke at an honors ceremony for the Upward Bound program, and for Knudsen-Daley, seeing her student speak with confidence and poise was a special moment.

“Knowing that he had the confidence to do it was pretty amazing,” she said, “especially knowing his history.”

Previously a student in the Ronan school district, Kenmille was teased and harassed to the point that he felt he had to make a change.

“I had a hard time going to Ronan and in seventh grade I just couldn’t take it anymore,” Kenmille says. “There were a lot of bullies and that’s when my Tourettes started up and I couldn’t control my tics.”

Knudsen-Daley remembers Kenmille when he first arrived at Two Eagle as a reserved boy who struggled to speak in front of others and who was largely controlled by his tics.

But slowly, he changed.

“When I got here I was really closed up and anyone who tried to be my friend, I would ignore. I was too afraid they would try to hurt me,” Kenmille said. “But then I found a lot of good friends. This place really has changed me a lot.”

That transformation may be, in part, due to the confidence that writing, and sharing his writing, has given him.

“Those poems really mean a lot to me, they’re something personal,” Kenmille said. But despite their deeply personal nature, he has become comfortable sharing them with his classmates because, “there’s no criticism or judgment. They’ve probably been in the situation you’re in.”

Kenmille said that in addition to writing poetry, he also enjoys other creative pursuits including composing short stories that he publishes online and cooking gourmet meals for his family.

In fact, after graduation, Kenmille will take that love of cooking and pursue a certification in culinary arts through the Kicking Horse Job Corps.

For more information on the art slam and these talented students, contact the Two Eagle River School.

Art Slam Results:

Art

Two-dimensional

1st: George Couture

2nd: Ty Gardipe

3rd: Sierra Webster

Hon: Cecelia Polk

Three-dimensional

1st: Jessica Perez

2nd: A.J. Weyant

3rd: Jessica Perez

Hon: Basil Kenmille

Photography

1st: Damon James

2nd: Alicia Lozeau

3rd: Ty Gardipe

Hon: Basil Kenmille

Home cultures

Quilt

1st: Drew Payne

2nd: Audrey Finley

3rd: Katie Moore

Hon: Shandeen Belanger

Beadwork

1st: Sierra Webster

2nd: Cecilia Gomez

3rd: Sierra Webster

Hon: Audrey Finley

Traditional/Non-Traditional Item

1st: Patience Yonkin

2nd: Jeriko Sias

3rd: Shandeen Belanger

Hon: Taylor Mullaney

English

Poetry

1st: Wesley Nowlen

2nd: Wesley Nowlen

3rd: Sierra Webster

Hon: Elysia Segura

Prose

1st: Basil Kenmille

2nd: Wesley Nowlen

3rd: Artie Mendoza

Hon: Basil Kenmille

Music

1st: Robbie Couture

2nd: Maria Alkadhem

3rd: Robbie Couture

Hon: Ty Gardipe/Damon James