We are Wheaton’s 2017 CUPSI team!

As you can tell, we are really excited to be working together this year to go to CUPSI. CUPSI, the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, is an annual national collegiate spoken word poetry competition. Basically, it’s teams of college students getting together and competing with original poems. The pieces range from topics like first loves, to hegemonic oppression, to poets themselves, to sharknado. It happens annually, and this year it’s at the University of Illinois in Chicago!

Wheaton's CUPSI Team Members

Natasha ’19:

Natasha is a sophomore at Wheaton College. She is currently pursuing an independent major in Social Movements.  Natasha has been writing poems ever since she was in the third grade but only started performing her freshman year of college.  She serves as president of iSpeak! and as the secretary of the Distinguished Women of Color Collective.  

Lindsey ’20

Lindsey Lorine is a nineteen year old poet from Brooklyn, New York. Lindsey has been writing poems since she was 8 years old and began performing at 13 years old. Lindsey is majoring in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Wheaton College and is pursuing a career as a Civil Rights Attorney and Activist. Lindsey is on iSpeak's 2017 CUPSI team and also serves as iSpeak's secretary on the executive board.

Anesu ’20

Anesu is 20 years old, Christian, and Zimbabwean. He loves music of all kinds, as long as the subject matter matters and it has a good beat and melody and all that. Anesu loves reading almost as much, including philosophies and sports too. However, poetry is at the top of his list. He likes writing about social interactions between people, experiences, and about religion and faith. Anesu has always watched poetry competitions online, and he cannot fathom that he will be going to CUPSI thanks to being a member in iSpeak!. Anesu encourages everyone to stop him and say hello!

Molly ’20

Molly Wood is a 19 year old, first year student at Wheaton College and a member of iSpeak!. She plans to double major in studio art and psychology to pursue a career in art therapy. She has had an interest in expressive arts such as poetry, art and dance since she was as young as 3 years old. During the time Molly is not doing school work or using expressive arts, she is hanging out with her friends or playing with her cat.

Caroline ’19

Caroline Dyhrberg (care-oh-leen deer-burg) is a sophomore at Wheaton double-majoring in Hispanic Studies and Women & Gender Studies. You can usually find them perfecting their bullet journal, stress baking, or seething about gender in Spanish. Caroline has been around slam poetry for years, and has always hoped that CUPSI would be a part of their college career, which is why they are so excited that this is happening. Caroline uses their writing to learn new things about themselves and to make public statements. They primarily write about identity, activism, and mental illness, and really hope you support Planned Parenthood.

Why you should support Wheaton's CUPSI Team:

CUPSI is one of the most powerful joining of cultures and words available to college students in the U.S., and we want in. This past November, iSpeak!, Wheaton’s spoken word poetry club held a slam to determine the team members. Since then, we’ve all been working very hard fundraising, writing, editing, and memorizing our pieces. Now, it’s crunch time. This year, CUPSI is April 12th - 15th. We still need some money to make this trip happen, which is why we’re reaching out to you. Any amount that you give will go to our trip. And even if you can’t donate, please share this campaign on your social media pages; spreading the word will help people understand what CUPSI is. Plus, maybe even your followers will contribute, who knows! We greatly appreciate any support that you give, as we are aching to bring our unique experiences and perspectives to a national stage.

Thank you for helping us spread our poet love.