AMPS Switches Their Microphones on at Open Mic

SHELLEY LIN
Staff Writer

On March 13, the Alhambra Moors Poets Society (AMPS) hosted their open mic night. Open Mic is an event to help prepare AMPS members for the annual Get Lit competition, which will be in Downtown Los Angeles on April 30. Open Mic was also welcome to anyone who wanted to share or recite a piece.

“Open Mics help establish and support a culture of poetry at AHS. They offer an opportunity to students to use their voices to advocate for their beliefs and tell their stories,” AMPS adviser Dorothy Burkhart said.

Get Lit

GET READY, GET LIT
AMPS members Anais Covarrubias, Sania Luna,
Yaneli Guajardo, Joseph Ney-Jun and Vivyanna Prado
practice their poetry pieces in preparation for the Get Lit competition on April 30.

MOOR photos by SHANNON KHA

The “A team,” which consists of the main group of people who performed at the AMPS Open Mic, includes juniors Sania Luna, Tina Le, Vivyana Prado, Julio Garcia and Ezza Munir and sophomore Yaneli Guajardo. The “B team,” which consists of alternates, includes senior Anais Covarrubias, juniors Joseph Ney-Jun and Pablo Garcia and sophomore Cyndia Zhou.

Last year, AMPS placed second in the Get Lit finals; they were three points away from tying with the first place winner. This year, the team is striving to do their best at their Get Lit competition by having meetings twice a week and Open Mics frequently.

“For this year’s competition, I’m working on being more honest. Usually I hide behind metaphors and symbols, so I hope this year I can be more honest without taking away too [from] the literary tools. [I will also be] working on my stage presence, because often times I’m a very still and stiff performer,” Le said.

Le has been involved in AMPS since her freshmen year, when she was introduced to poetry. She was inspired by the poets on the team, which made her aim to continue to become better at it.

“The best part of performing poetry is the feelings and emotions running through [my] head, but also seeing the words [I] write come to life. [I] feel like all this pent up energy is finally being released and it’s liberating,” Le said.

Julio Garcia, who is a junior, joined AMPS this year and plans on focusing to improve on memorization,
writing more and preparing to recite poems.

“AMPS has definitely allowed me to be more open with myself and has helped me become more of a creative writer,” Garcia said.