Contributed by:
Tabitha Dial, YourHub.com
Article Contributed on: 11/16/2006 5:43:44 PM
Some might call slam poets harbingers of lyrical anger, young men and women who spout their pain, their disgust, their fears and anything else that gets in their emotional way on stage, competing with one another, performing for applause and fame and notoriety.
Sometimes, such wordsmiths come together, creating an art larger than the sum of their parts. To be at Poetry Slam 101in the Half Moon Room at Arapahoe Community College on Nov. 15 was to pay witness to Denver's slam scene, to peer just a little bit into the lives of six individuals who have adopted spoken word as their vehicle for expression.
Isis, of the 2006 Denver Slam Team, said that "Individually, we're egomaniacal poets" when she helped introduce the team to a crowded Half Moon Room.
Collectively, the team has defeated 500 poets and 72 slam teams in their last competition.
During the Nov. 15 workshop, Denver Slam Team slam master
Paulie Lipman told how poet
Marc Smith got tired of the open mic poetry scene in Chicago decades ago, when Smith began to create the art of spoken word. "The audience was bored to tears (from all the polite clapping). Why do (the poets) need an audience?" said Lipman.
It was time to shake up the stage, to strip poetry away from the beatniks, to splatter it with color, to force the poet to earn his time on stage, to have judges rate their offerings and "get a number to someone's pain," said Lipman.
"At a poetry slam, you can react at any point, at any volume," said Lipman. And as audience members, you are expected to let the judges know if you don't agree with their scores.
Not only is such an environment entertaining for the audience, it also has significance for the slam poet. Every single night, there is an
E. E. Cummings or other great poet waiting to emerge, said Isis.
"We are the contemporaries," she said.
Denver Slam Team member
Ken Arkind used fellow contemporary
Kay Crowne, a Denver poet now transplanted to Chicago, to explain slam poetry. He said she called it "the re-birth of Shakespeare," adding his own definition of "beautiful poetry put in the theatre realm."
During the slam workshop, Lipman advised performers to genuinely return to the psychological and emotional state that fostered the poetry they want to present. "As long as you are honest, you will be rewarded," he said.
Denver Slam Team member
Jen Rinaldi, an English and drama teacher at South High School in Denver, spoke of rewards slam poetry has given to her circle of influence. She said that her students can now see themselves as poets, after going to the monthly spoken word competitions she helped establish at her school. She said the competitions are the most popular events at the school and that it helps her get students interested in
Walt Whitman and other poets.
"The point is (for you to think), 'I can do that!' Everyone can do this, That's what a slam is," said Lipman.
A listen and view of
this podcast and
this video will give you an idea of Denver Slam Team member
Panama Soweto's performance at ACC. He performed the second poem,
What Would George Bush Do? at ACC on Nov. 15.
To read a wikipedia definition of slam poetry,
click here.
To read rules and more about poetry slams,
click here.
What do you think about slam poetry? Post your comments in the comments box below.