This Slam is Your Slam, This Slam is My Slam Frieda Carson Biblio.com Staff

According to the Oxford American Dictionary, a "Poetry Slam" is, a competition using elimination rounds for the reading or performance of poetry. But that's just the beginning of slam poetry.

The concept of slam poetry is to bring poetry into daily life, to democratize and popularize the art form so that it may be brought to the attention of those who might otherwise find poetry too abstract or "academic" to appreciate. Few mediums cross cultural and social boundaries as easily as slam poetry has. The form has its critics, but since its inception in 1984, there is little doubt that the concept has taken hold.

The man credited with hosting the first poetry slam is Marc Smith, who emceed the first one at the Get Me High Lounge in Chicago in November 1984. The first permanent home was found by Smith at Chicago's Green Mill Jazz Club in 1986, and slams are still held there today. The first National Poetry Slam took place in San Francisco in 1990. Since then, slams have have spread all over the world. Canada, Germany, Sweden, France, Austria, Nepal, the Netherlands, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Sarajevo, Bosnia, and Macedonia all have poetry slam scenes. The National Poetry Slam has grown in popularity as well, and currently includes more than 70 teams from all over the US.

The poetry slam movement has been popularized even further by the HBO program "Def Poetry Jam," also known as Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry, hosted by Mos Def, and created by hip-hop music entrepreneur Russel Simmons. The show features poets who are established in the slam scene and those who are on their way up. Celebrities more well-known for work in film, television and music will often show up as well.

The format of the slam differs widely from place to place, as do the performers and audiences, but the basic idea is that judges are chosen from the audience at random or by the emcee or host, and the poets perform an original work that is then judged on a scale of one to ten. The words matter, but performance is just as important as content in a poetry slam, a fact cited by critics of slam poetry. The experience of reading a poem is quite different, however, from seeing poetry performed, as any slam poet or slam fan will tell you.

It makes sense, considering its roots in the oral tradition where most stories, poems, and plays were passed on by performers. There is a sense of community inherent in the oral tradition and of course, an emphasis on performance. Some performers choose to let their voices do all the work while others use carefully choreographed movement and other theatrics (props are generally forbidden).

Slam poetry varies as widely in terms of theme and style as any other form of poetry, though it does frequently deal head-on with social and political issues. Critics cite that the language of slam poetry is often intentionally shocking and/or provoking, rather than carefully constructed to satisfy a particular aesthetic. The language has a stronger tendency toward vernacular and informal usage, making it more easily accessible to many than more rigidly or subtly structured work. This is all in keeping with the idea of democratizing poetry, an art form that has often been considered the most obscure. The language of slam poetry keeps it more immediate, topical, closer to the ground and therefore closer to our daily lives.

Soon after slams began in Chicago, the idea migrated to New York City. The Nuyorican Poets' Cafe in Manhattan has been one of the most notable homes to slam poetry. Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe, edited by Miguel Algarin and Bob Holman, is a collection of verse by poets who have performed at the Nuyorican. It's a large collection featuring a wide range of poetic styles. The introduction, written by Miguel Algarin, is a personal and captivating history of the cafe, poetry slams, and the philosophy of this style of art. Some of the poems in this collection will make you laugh out loud, or even shed a tear or two. I highly recommend it, especially if you think you don't even like poetry. Slam poetry is, after all, designed to change your mind.

Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe edited by Miguel Algarin and Bob Holman

The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip Hop & the Poetry of a New Generation by Billy Collins

Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam by Cristin O. Aptowicz A history of slam poetry culture in the Big Apple and beyond places an emphasis on three major twentieth-century arts movements, including the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats, and hip hop, in a chronicle that traces the origins of slam at the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe and its monumental popularity as supported through such venues as Lollapalooza and MTV's Unplugged. Original.

Hey You! C'mere! A Poetry Slam by Elizabeth Swados An energetic and entertaining combination of bold illustrations and lyrical text follows seven children, who meet on a street corner, as they turn their various experiences, from standing up to a bully to eating ice cream, into a "poetry slam."

Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry This volume is both a guide to the slam poetry phenomenon, addressing the rules as they are popularly practiced, and an anthology of winning competitors, including Beau Sia, Edwin Torres, and others.

• Poetry Slam, Inc.
• 2008 National Poetry Slam, official site
• Poets.org
• An Incomplete History of Slam: A biography of an evolving poetry movement
• Web English Teacher: Classroom Poetry Slams