Poetry Slam

[xicanopoet]

I'm a performance poet from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I love to slam! I was just wondering what people in this room thought of the poetry slam. I know some poets say that poetry should never judged, but for me personally, the slam is a way to get people excited about poetry. I want to know what you think.

[Howard Miller]

:( :(
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[David Bowers]

Originally posted by Howard Miller:
http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/frown.gif http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/frown.gif
http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/frown.gif http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/frown.gif
http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/frown.gif http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/frown.gif


Now that's how to ensure there's no ambiguity in a reply!!!

Dave

[Howard Miller]

Six pictures are worth 6,000 words.

And they're much quieter.


Howard

[xicanopoet]

What don't you like about it?

[Patrice]

To quote the Bard:

It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

[kristal]

Originally posted by Alexander de Villa:
http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/eek.gif http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/eek.gif
http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/eek.gif http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/eek.gif
http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/eek.gif http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/eek.gif

hmmm well i can see why no one wanted to tell me how to do smilies lol

[Howard Miller]

"What don't you like about it?"

There's very little substance to most slam poetry.

1. Content--Slam poetry tends to the most simplistic reduction of ideas imaginable. Because what is most important in performance is that the performer produce a continuous running stream of verbalization, there's no possibility of any kind of complex development or presentation of ideas or emotional states. Such ideas as appear are almost always those which the audience can grasp immediately and with which the audience is going to agree without the necessity of any thought since the performance allows no time for critical reflection. This in turn means content is superficial, rarely if ever proceeding beyond the most obvious and clichéd ideas.

2. Structure--Performance poetry proceeds at best in strictly linear fashion but more commonly in discontinuous saltation from one thing to another with no development, often little or no clear relation between one element and the next. The goal is to keep moving at any cost, and the cost is that logic and coherence are often lost. Most often, the structure is just that of the rambling, scattergun rant, the kind of thing one can find in depressing abundance in the "Teen" Forum. There's nothing of subtlety or depth. What development of ideas there is comes in the form of mere repetition, which is never a substitution of development and exploration. Slam poems batter the listener rather than persuade or draw him into experience.

3. Language--There's little regard for language or word choice except occasionally on the basis of the sound of words, often at the expense of meaning, or an obvious--and usually very tired--pun of the most superficial sort. There's little or no regard for the complexity of words and their meaning or their evocative power, frequently not even to their correct use.

In short, the very qualities that attract readers to poetry are by and large absent from slam "poetry"; even the application of that term to slam pieces is justifiably questionable.


Howard, who hates smilies but prefers them to slam work


[This message has been edited by Howard Miller (edited 02-05-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Howard Miller (edited 02-05-2002).]

[Pimpstress_Anne]

i've heard of poetry slams (or whatever they are) but i'm not quite sure how they work, some one want to fill me in? please!

[xicanopoet]

Simply put, poetry slam is the competitive art of performance poetry. Established in the mid-80s as a means to heighten public interest in poetry readings, slam has evolved into an international art form emphasizing audience involvement and poetic excellence.
In the majority of slam series, organizers stage weekly or monthly events in a public space, such as a bar or cafe. Poets wishing to compete sign up with a host, and the host finds five audience members who wish to serve as judges. Poets must follow a series of rules: the poems must be of each poet's own construction, the poet may not use props, costumes, or musical instruments, and if the poet goes over the time limit (three minutes plus a 10-second grace period), points are deducted from his or her score. Judges, who are encouraged to factor both content and performance into their evaluations, judge each poet on a 0.0 to 10.0 scale. The high score and low score are dropped, and the middle three scores become the score for that particular poet. To insure that the entire audience is involved, the host encourages the audience to respond to the poet in any way they see fit, be it impassioned cheering or lusty booing. The judges, in turn, are encouraged to remain consistent with themselves and not let the audience influence them.

In a typical competition, all poets read one poem in the first round. Based on the scores they receive, the top-scoring poets go on to the second round, and from that pool, a smaller number of the highest-scoring poets in the second round go on to the third and final round. While the specifics vary from slam to slam, certified slams adhere to this basic structure, insuring that poets must seek to make immediate connections with the audience in order to continue on. Cash prizes or other prizes are offered to the winner as further impetus for performing well. In most cities, the slam series culminates with a final slam at the end of the season to determine which poets will represent the city at the National Poetry Slam.

By adhering to a structure that factors in the audience at such a basic and integral level, slams have emerged as the most vital and best-attended of many cities' regular poetry events. Whereas many open mike events tend to serve either the poets who participate or a particular target community, slam's emphasis on addressing the audience has garnered slam a more inclusive, more diverse audience than the typical poetry reading. By marrying poetry with competition, slam has allowed non-traditional audiences a tangible and intriguing avenue for experiencing poetry in a live prime-time setting.

[Andrea345]

Sounds more like something if you're an actor or a good reader you'd do well at it but I don't get how this demonstrates a good poem. And, if you're a wonderful poet, but a lousy reader, what then?

Check out this link: http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/Forum11/HTML/000361.html

-a
who stinks at reading aloud

[Tony Hoffman]

Although I've only been to a couple of slams, I've heard a lot of slam and performance poets at readings in the New York City area. Though I'm not a particular fan of the genre, I've heard some wonderful slam poetry; like any medium, it runs the gamut in quality, dependent on the ability of the poet.

It's quite different than written poetry; it often does not translate particularly well onto the page, it's often not as deep or metaphorical as a lot of the poetry written for the page, it sometimes gets caught up in cliche, forced rhyme, or diatribe and is often considered lacking by conventional poetic standards.

But then, it is not meant to be read on a page, and it requires skills that written poetry does not: it's usually spoken from memory, it requires the ability to connect with and hold an audience, through the words, through the tone, as well as nonverbal means--an ability to communicate clearly and intelligibly, and usually to be clever. It's designed to be entertaining more than enlightening. It's related to a lot of other art forms, from music, rap, to acting and stand-up comedy, to traditional poetry readings.

And it can do some things that written poetry can't do. I remember a reading I attended by a number of slam poets, and there was one poem about the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk; it began and ended with the reader speaking in Morse Code the SOS's: "di-di-di DAH DAH DAH di-di-dit, di-di-di DAH DAH DAH di-di-dit..." It was quite effective, in a way that I doubt it would have been if it had simply been done on the page.

I know people who are quite passionate about slam poetry, as a populist movement that will get people who wouldn't otherwise be interested in poetry to readings, as a way to reconnect with poetry's oral tradition. Of course, the purposes and practice of poetry have changed somewhat over the millennia (though oral poetry contests go back thousands of years). Actually, I know a lot of people who started as slam poets who over the years have branched out to embrace a greater range of poetic tradition.

In another poetry website, the question came up, what if all poetry contests were judged by non-poets. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, a non-poet, saying that it was a lousy idea. He, on the other hand, thought it would be a great idea, saying that it would keep us poets honest, would weed out obtuse or incomprehensible poetry and force poets to remember that if they didn't keep their audience in mind, chances are they wouldn't have one for very long. I still didn't think having non-poets judge all poetry contests was a good idea, but I could see how my own work could benefit by making it a bit more personal and comprehensible.
On the other hand, I know a lot of people who started as slam poets who over the years have branched out to embrace a greater range of poetic tradition.

--Tony


[This message has been edited by Tony Hoffman (edited 02-05-2002).]

[xicanopoet]

Thank you for your remarks and was that poet who performed the poem with morse code in it Gary Glasner? He's a friend of mine? He's from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

[Tony Hoffman]

I'm not sure who the poet was; the reading was related to the publication of an anthology of slam poetry. I know there were several people from out of town; I'd seen a couple of them in one of the movies about slam.

--Tony

[garyg]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xicanopoet:

**After having read your poems and posts to this site, I didn't think there was any chance that you actually composed this post yourself. I checked, and I was right.

Attribution is a wonderful thing; you should learn about it sometime.
http://www.poetryslam.com/faq.htm

(stolentext snip)

garyg

[Adam Pittman]

Originally posted by Tony Hoffman:

And it can do some things that written poetry can't do. I remember a reading I attended by a number of slam poets, and there was one poem about the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk; it began and ended with the reader speaking in Morse Code the SOS's: "di-di-di DAH DAH DAH di-di-dit, di-di-di DAH DAH DAH di-di-dit..." It was quite effective, in a way that I doubt it would have been if it had simply been done on the page.

Tony, I can't believe that you of all people would say such a thing. What about sound and sense in poetry? The Morse Code SOSs, in the right hands, could in fact be translated on to the page. I've always thought that the rhythm and sound of the words in a poem reflect the idea of the poem in good poetry.


Originally posted by Tony Hoffman:

In another poetry website, the question came up, what if all poetry contests were judged by non-poets. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, a non-poet, saying that it was a lousy idea. He, on the other hand, thought it would be a great idea, saying that it would keep us poets honest, would weed out obtuse or incomprehensible poetry and force poets to remember that if they didn't keep their audience in mind, chances are they wouldn't have one for very long.

Reading poetry is an acquired skill, you know. Just like reading about science. Just like reading a children's book when growing up. Just like understanding anything at all.

It seems to me that slam poetry is just an answer for the great majority of people who just lack attention spans and insight. What is "good" about slam poetry doesn't reflect weakness in written poetry -- it reflects weakness in society and education in general.

Adam

[Tony Hoffman]

Happy birthday, Adam!

Tony, I can't believe that you of all people would say such a thing. What about sound and sense in poetry? The Morse Code SOSs, in the right hands, could in fact be translated on to the page. I've always thought that the rhythm and sound of the words in a poem reflect the idea of the poem in good poetry.

Adam, so I guess you weren't as impressed with his reciting of the poem as I was.

Seriously, someone could certainly do justice to the Morse Code on the page (as a former ham radio operator, maybe I should give something like that a try), capture the fade as it slowly dwindled into nothingness. Would it have had the same impact on me if I had seen it on a page rather than heard it? I don't know; all I know is that the effect of hearing it was exceptional. Reading something on a page and hearing it read are not the same experience. (I also have seven years of Morse Code running somewhere in my head, so my own experience with the subject matter might be a factor.) A poet doing a reading can't make bad poetry good--but they can make the best of what's already there. Someone else reading it may have come off quite flat.

Originally posted by Tony Hoffman:
In another poetry website, the question came up, what if all poetry contests were judged by non-poets. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, a non-poet, saying that it was a lousy idea. He, on the other hand, thought it would be a great idea, saying that it would keep us poets honest, would weed out obtuse or incomprehensible poetry and force poets to remember that if they didn't keep their audience in mind, chances are they wouldn't have one for very long.


Reading poetry is an acquired skill, you know. Just like reading about science. Just like reading a children's book when growing up. Just like understanding anything at all.

I tried to get that across to my friend. He thought I was being elitist. :-) I guess another question I've had to ask is, who am I writing for? To use your analogy, "is it hard science or popular science"? That can vary from poem to poem; some of my work is rather dense wordplay that only another poet would be likely to appreciate, but I try to make most of my work accessible to a general audience (of average intelligence) who is not particularly interested in poetry--and I don't think this requires any real "dumbing down". I think my friend was reacting largely to the proliferation of rather incomprehensible experimental poetry that's common here; indeed, coming from a rather avant-garde poetic community (centered around the Poetry Project), I've grown to appreciate qualities such as clarity which is not always apparent in the work I see around me.

--Tony

[Adam Pittman]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the happy birthday wish!

You've made some good points. I hope you don't think I was trying to get on your case. I've been around to some poetry sites and I've seen your picture posted up on one of them, so I assume that you have some standing within a poetry circle or two. Given that, I simply worry that written poetry will begin to lose more value than it already has if prestigious members of poetry rings (big or small) begin to declare that written poetry has very binding limitations. I see now, after reading your reply, that you don't believe that to the extent I thought you might have. *Sigh of relief*

Thanks for your reply.

Adam