A large crowd gathered in The Shack on Thursday for the first “Third Thursday: Poetry In the Park” event of the school year.

The reading, organized by the Black Programming Committee, was moved this week from its usual location in Peace Park to The Shack due to weather. It served as a public exhibition of a genre called slam poetry, an intensely emotional style of poetry that generally expresses the poet’s personal story.

Sophomore Chrystal Hollins, an open mic first-timer, said she enjoys the creative freedom the event provides.

“It gives you the opportunity to express yourself and be creative,” she said. “There’s no time limit. You can go long or short, or scream and shout.”

Hollins said she has always dreamed of doing an open mic reading, and this event provided the perfect opportunity for self-expression.

The evening’s event included open-mic rookies like Hollins, as well as two better-known names in the slam poetry genre: Louis Conphliction and Se7en the Poet.

Black Programming Committee Director Brittany Arnold cites the environment and the artists as two main reasons the poetry readings draw a crowd.

“Some people specifically knew of Se7en,” she said. “He’s from Houston. Some people knew of Louis, he’s from St. Louis, so he had a large following.”

Conphliction, the first of two the professional poets to perform, went to UM-St. Louis, which he jokingly labeled “the bald-headed stepchild” in relation to the Columbia flagship campus. He got his start writing poetry when he first arrived at college.

“My mentor told me to do it,” he said. “He said ‘Jump,’ I was in the air, and I’ve been doing alright ever since. I started writing, and the rest is history.”

In his poetry, Conphliction references everything from love to lust to his own passion for poetry and the unique way he performs it.

“I’m trying to restore, I’m trying to revive, I’m trying to rebirth poetry,” he said in one of his pieces.

Arnold said historically, “Third Thursday” has been well received on campus.

“It’s something that’s been a tradition since I’ve been here,” Arnold said. “They’re used to us doing this, and they love it. We get a lot of great feedback.”

Sophomore Dresa Cockrell said slam poetry is just another medium to practice self-expression.

“(Slam poetry is) a more intimate medium to connect with something more dear to your heart and to feel what other people are feeling,” Cockrell said.