When you were a kid taking English for the first time in elementary school, the concepts of "intensity" and "poetry" probably didn't overlap too much. You smiled and assimilated:

"Please, thank you, and pardon me / Are such nice words to say / To Teacher and to little friends / For what they do each day."

It was much later on when you grew up and nodded angily along as Gil Scott-Heron said, "A rat done bit my sister Nell / But Whitey's on the moon."

Well, there's no telling what you'll hear Wednesday in the lower gallery at New London's Hygienic Art, but there will be no shortage of intensity. For this month's Arm Your Voice event, they're hosting a Poetry Slam. Audience members will judge the poets and, prior to the competition, actor/poet Tarishi M.I.D.N.I.G.H.T. Shuler will perform. The evening's student poet, Imani Bowerise from Metropolitan Learning Center in Bloomfield, kicks off the event.

Arm Your Voice, 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Hygienic Art Gallery, 79 Bank St., New London; free; (860) 443-8001.