This week, JustArts spoke with Naomi DePina '16, who is a senator at large on the Student Union and the chair of the Union Social Justice who Diversity committee who is coordinating the slam poetry event this Friday.

JustArts: Would you tell us a little bit about how the idea for the slam event came together and how long the Student Union has been planning it?

Naomi DePina: So I when I was running for Social Justice and Diversity chair, we were first thinking about having a speaker come and then talk to us but that's a little boring and no one would actually show up. But I realized that a lot of the people at Brandeis are very artsy. And who doesn't love poetry? I mean our [Dean of Students is Jamele] Adams. So we came up with a committee of five to six people-five right now-and we talked about it and I said "guys, do you want to have a poetry slam or would you rather have a speaker come?" But we're also doing a speaker at the end of this month. So we're doing the poetry slam and we have a lot of performers coming.

JA: So I read that there are five performances and 12 poets lined up to participate. What type of performances can we expect?

ND: Our first performance is Crowd Control. Our second performance is Mac and Alexandria Campbell '16, doing a duet. Our third performance is Osaze Akerejah '14... he's rapping. Another performance is also another rapper, Joel Burt-Miller '16. They're all very well known on campus. And Dean Adams will also be performing.

JA: How do you think the event will raise awareness about the importance of social justice and diversity on campus?

ND: What other better way is there for people to actually take away something about social justice and diversity than having their peers express what social justice and diversity means to them?

So I feel like we can try to define, "this is social justice. This is diversity. Social Justice is equality," but it's so much more than that. And people have their own experiences [which] develops their own opinion which I like to call a narrative. Everyone has [his or her] own narrative.

JA: How did Adams get involved and do you know what he will be slamming?

ND: I talked to him towards the end of last semester and he was very excited about the poetry slam, obviously. And he's going to be the host. Also he will be doing his own poem on diversity and social justice and it's what he wrote and he does a lot [of slam poetry] about social justice and diversity.

JA: How will the competition work and will there be winners placing and prizes given?

ND: There will be prizes. I can't tell you what the prizes are. We will have a first, second and third place prize. And we have certificates for each of our poets for contributing. It takes a lot of time. People don't realize it's a lot of work to write a poem and it means a lot when someone expresses what social justice and diversity is. So everyone is getting a certificate.

The first three winners are going to get a prize. And we're going to have three judges-hopefully one faculty [member]. I'm still working on it. We have one judge from the Student Union. So we have a senator. We have one of the people from my committee-so from the Social Justice committee-we have non-social justice chairs too so they're not going to be all senators. And then we're going to have a faculty member.

JA: Do you hope that this will be a tradition to continue at Brandeis?

ND: Yes, well hopefully I run for senator but even if it's not me next year in this position [as] diversity chair, I would want the next person to carry this on. So it has to be a success.

-Emily Wishingrad and Rachel Hughes