So I just realized that I've posted a good number of Slam Poems but I've never actually taken the time to explain to all of you what Slam Poetry actually is. Luckily, I had the opportunity to give a brief lesson on Slam during a friend's creative writing college course so I made a handy hand-out. Without further ado, here you go:
A quick Taste of the SLAM revolution
“What is Slam?” From the Founder Marc Kelly Smith:
"Competitive poetry.
That's what slam is.
I looked it up on Wikipedia."
When the uninitiated hear the term "slam poetry," they say "slam what?" or serve up the quick and easy answer quoted above or the equally facile interpretation that slam is "rap without music—what Eminem did in 8 Mile or what that singer Grande Corde Malade does in France." Chances are they got a taste of slam at the French Nationals or at the Starry Plough in Berkeley, but it was only a taste. A deeper drink would tell them more. And here's that drink, served up by the Slampapi himself:
Slams are captivating poetry events that focus a live audience's attention on the presentation of poetry that's been composed, polished, and rehearsed for the purpose of being performed—very often in a competitive arena, but not always. It's a carnival, a pageant, an interactive classroom, a town hall meeting, a con game, a versified boxing match, and a churchlike revival that electrifies and animates the people listening to and watching it.
Competitive slam poets battle against one another like wrestlers vying for a championship belt. Each poet takes his or her turn onstage to play at proving their superiority as both poet and performer. The audience is prompted to get involved, and it does! Crowds have been known to roar approval or stomp their boots in scorn for the poetics they love or pretend to hate.
Excerpted from: Smith, Marc Kelly, and Joe Kraynak. Take the Mic: The Art of Performance Poetry, Slam, and the Spoken Word. Naperville, Ill.: Source MediaFusion, 2009. Print.
The kicking, screaming birth of slam:
- In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, even the biggest names and most famous poets were facing dwindling audiences due to the stiff, formal, monotonous, and even flat-out-boring nature of poetry readings (usually in libraries or bookstores)
- So what changed? Passion! Power! Performance! Marc Kelly Smith wanted to steer spoken poetry away from the highly specialized (or often non-existent) audience of highbrow poetry aficionados to the general public.
- It worked! Despite the scoffers and naysayers, Smith started hosting ‘Poetry Slams’ in Chicago during the summer of 1986 at the Get Me High Lounge.
- Just three years later, in 1989, Smith had kicked off the National Slam competition in San Francisco. By the competition’s second year (back in Chicago) it had sold out to over 700 audience members – the biggest poetry event The Windy City had witnessed in decades.
- Today, Poetry Slam competitions and Slam open mic nights are held all over the world from Boston to Bosnia.
Information pulled from: Smith, Marc Kelly. The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip-hop & the Poetry of a New Generation. Naperville, Ill.: Source MediaFusion, 2003. Print.
The “RULES” of slam:
While the rules can be different depending on where you go, and Slam is more about creative performance than competition, but there are a few generally adhered to “rules.”
- 3 Minute Cap – Limiting slammers to three minutes per poem (with a ten second grace period) keeps Slams from falling back into the stagnant territory of poetry readings where authors might drone on for upwards of ten or fifteen minutes (usually losing their audience’s attention on the way).
- Audience Judges – Judging is generally done in two ways (but both are audience based)
- Audience members are pulled at random by the host and asked to judge.
- The host judges whose Slam was best by audience feedback (clapping, thumbs up, stomping etc.)
- Scored 0 – 10 – If judging is done via the 2a method above, judges usually grade on a scale of 0-10 which can occasionally go up to 30 or even infinite if a Slammer knocks it out of the park.
- What do I win? – Slam prizes can be anything from a free drink to a bunch of money but mostly Slammers participate to get their poems out there and try to win for bragging rights and respect.
Slam resources: killer poets and where to find them:
Marc Kelly Smith:
The author of Slam himself. Enough said.
www.marckellysmith.com or check out his official foundation: www.poetryslam.com
Shane Koyczan:
Canadian Spoken Word artist and Slam Poet. Winner of the 2000 National Poetry Slam
http://www.shanekoyczan.com/ (Check out Spotify for his three spoken word albums, they will jolt your mind and crack your heart wide open)
Sierra DeMulder:
Two-time National Poetry Slam champion and one of the most recognizable young women in the world of Slam Sierrademulder.tumblr.com
Jack McCarthy:
Winner of numerous Slam awards and a brilliant, hilarious, Slam poet who sadly passed in 2013 www.standupoet.net (Check out his poem, ‘Careful What You Ask For’)
Button Poetry:
Button Poetry is one of many groups that promote Slam. Check it out to see some great poets like Neil Hilborn. www.buttonpoetry.com
So I just realized that I've posted a good number of Slam Poems but I've never actually taken the time to explain to all of you what Slam Poetry actually is. Luckily, I had the opportunity to give a brief lesson on Slam during a friend's creative writing college course so I made a handy hand-out. Without further ado, here you go:
A quick Taste of the SLAM revolution
When the uninitiated hear the term "slam poetry," they say "slam what?" or serve up the quick and easy answer quoted above or the equally facile interpretation that slam is "rap without music—what Eminem did in 8 Mile or what that singer Grande Corde Malade does in France." Chances are they got a taste of slam at the French Nationals or at the Starry Plough in Berkeley, but it was only a taste. A deeper drink would tell them more. And here's that drink, served up by the Slampapi himself:
Slams are captivating poetry events that focus a live audience's attention on the presentation of poetry that's been composed, polished, and rehearsed for the purpose of being performed—very often in a competitive arena, but not always. It's a carnival, a pageant, an interactive classroom, a town hall meeting, a con game, a versified boxing match, and a churchlike revival that electrifies and animates the people listening to and watching it.
Competitive slam poets battle against one another like wrestlers vying for a championship belt. Each poet takes his or her turn onstage to play at proving their superiority as both poet and performer. The audience is prompted to get involved, and it does! Crowds have been known to roar approval or stomp their boots in scorn for the poetics they love or pretend to hate.
Excerpted from: Smith, Marc Kelly, and Joe Kraynak. Take the Mic: The Art of Performance Poetry, Slam, and the Spoken Word. Naperville, Ill.: Source MediaFusion, 2009. Print.
The kicking, screaming birth of slam:
Information pulled from: Smith, Marc Kelly. The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip-hop & the Poetry of a New Generation. Naperville, Ill.: Source MediaFusion, 2003. Print.
The “RULES” of slam:
While the rules can be different depending on where you go, and Slam is more about creative performance than competition, but there are a few generally adhered to “rules.”
Slam resources: killer poets and where to find them:
Marc Kelly Smith:
The author of Slam himself. Enough said.
www.marckellysmith.com or check out his official foundation: www.poetryslam.com
Shane Koyczan:
Canadian Spoken Word artist and Slam Poet. Winner of the 2000 National Poetry Slam
http://www.shanekoyczan.com/ (Check out Spotify for his three spoken word albums, they will jolt your mind and crack your heart wide open)
Sierra DeMulder:
Two-time National Poetry Slam champion and one of the most recognizable young women in the world of Slam Sierrademulder.tumblr.com
Jack McCarthy:
Winner of numerous Slam awards and a brilliant, hilarious, Slam poet who sadly passed in 2013 www.standupoet.net (Check out his poem, ‘Careful What You Ask For’)
Button Poetry:
Button Poetry is one of many groups that promote Slam. Check it out to see some great poets like Neil Hilborn. www.buttonpoetry.com
“What is Slam?” From the Founder Marc Kelly Smith:
"Competitive poetry.
That's what slam is.
I looked it up on Wikipedia."
When the uninitiated hear the term "slam poetry," they say "slam what?" or serve up the quick and easy answer quoted above or the equally facile interpretation that slam is "rap without music—what Eminem did in 8 Mile or what that singer Grande Corde Malade does in France." Chances are they got a taste of slam at the French Nationals or at the Starry Plough in Berkeley, but it was only a taste. A deeper drink would tell them more. And here's that drink, served up by the Slampapi himself:
Slams are captivating poetry events that focus a live audience's attention on the presentation of poetry that's been composed, polished, and rehearsed for the purpose of being performed—very often in a competitive arena, but not always. It's a carnival, a pageant, an interactive classroom, a town hall meeting, a con game, a versified boxing match, and a churchlike revival that electrifies and animates the people listening to and watching it.
Competitive slam poets battle against one another like wrestlers vying for a championship belt. Each poet takes his or her turn onstage to play at proving their superiority as both poet and performer. The audience is prompted to get involved, and it does! Crowds have been known to roar approval or stomp their boots in scorn for the poetics they love or pretend to hate.
Excerpted from: Smith, Marc Kelly, and Joe Kraynak. Take the Mic: The Art of Performance Poetry, Slam, and the Spoken Word. Naperville, Ill.: Source MediaFusion, 2009. Print.
The kicking, screaming birth of slam:
- In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, even the biggest names and most famous poets were facing dwindling audiences due to the stiff, formal, monotonous, and even flat-out-boring nature of poetry readings (usually in libraries or bookstores)
- So what changed? Passion! Power! Performance! Marc Kelly Smith wanted to steer spoken poetry away from the highly specialized (or often non-existent) audience of highbrow poetry aficionados to the general public.
- It worked! Despite the scoffers and naysayers, Smith started hosting ‘Poetry Slams’ in Chicago during the summer of 1986 at the Get Me High Lounge.
- Just three years later, in 1989, Smith had kicked off the National Slam competition in San Francisco. By the competition’s second year (back in Chicago) it had sold out to over 700 audience members – the biggest poetry event The Windy City had witnessed in decades.
- Today, Poetry Slam competitions and Slam open mic nights are held all over the world from Boston to Bosnia.
Information pulled from: Smith, Marc Kelly. The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip-hop & the Poetry of a New Generation. Naperville, Ill.: Source MediaFusion, 2003. Print.
The “RULES” of slam:
While the rules can be different depending on where you go, and Slam is more about creative performance than competition, but there are a few generally adhered to “rules.”
- 3 Minute Cap – Limiting slammers to three minutes per poem (with a ten second grace period) keeps Slams from falling back into the stagnant territory of poetry readings where authors might drone on for upwards of ten or fifteen minutes (usually losing their audience’s attention on the way).
- Audience Judges – Judging is generally done in two ways (but both are audience based)
- Audience members are pulled at random by the host and asked to judge.
- The host judges whose Slam was best by audience feedback (clapping, thumbs up, stomping etc.)
- Scored 0 – 10 – If judging is done via the 2a method above, judges usually grade on a scale of 0-10 which can occasionally go up to 30 or even infinite if a Slammer knocks it out of the park.
- What do I win? – Slam prizes can be anything from a free drink to a bunch of money but mostly Slammers participate to get their poems out there and try to win for bragging rights and respect.
Slam resources: killer poets and where to find them:
Marc Kelly Smith:
The author of Slam himself. Enough said.
www.marckellysmith.com or check out his official foundation: www.poetryslam.com
Shane Koyczan:
Canadian Spoken Word artist and Slam Poet. Winner of the 2000 National Poetry Slam
http://www.shanekoyczan.com/ (Check out Spotify for his three spoken word albums, they will jolt your mind and crack your heart wide open)
Sierra DeMulder:
Two-time National Poetry Slam champion and one of the most recognizable young women in the world of Slam Sierrademulder.tumblr.com
Jack McCarthy:
Winner of numerous Slam awards and a brilliant, hilarious, Slam poet who sadly passed in 2013 www.standupoet.net (Check out his poem, ‘Careful What You Ask For’)
Button Poetry:
Button Poetry is one of many groups that promote Slam. Check it out to see some great poets like Neil Hilborn. www.buttonpoetry.com
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