[Daniel Recktenwald]

Launching a topic for discussion: poetry slams.

Who's been to one? Any regular attendees at them? What do you make of them? Useful takeaways? Any "but for the free association clause of the First Amendment. . . " outcry against them?

What do you all think?

Daniel

[John Isbell]

I spent some time at slams in the early 2000s. I guess my comment on slams as an art form would be this scene from This Is Spinal Tap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOO5S4vxi0o

Cheers,
John

[Daniel Recktenwald]

Yep, yep, yep. I get it.

(more discussion to come, I hope.)

Thanks for this, John. I needed the laugh.

D

[Julie Steiner]

Due to my auditory processing issues, I strongly prefer poetry on the page.

Whether in a slam or in a more traditional poetry reading, the performers tend to speak way too fast for me to understand the words on any level, let alone appreciate the multiple levels of wordplay.

Yes, I know that there are many here who enjoy poetry in performance, and who feel that that hearing it, rather than seeing it, is the best way to appreciate this art form.

You go right ahead and enjoy it that way. I can't.

[Chris O'Carroll]

Here's a link to an anti-slam essay:

http://www.umbrellajournal.com/fall2...y/DonKunz.html

And here's a link to the poem I wrote in response:

http://www.bigcitylit.com/spring2011...rroll#defender

I haven't attended many slams, and haven't been impressed by most of the slam poems I've heard. Also, I've seen plenty of Poetry and New Yorker poems that I regarded as a complete waste of ink and paper. But good stuff rears its head from time to time.

[Daniel Recktenwald]

Hey, Chris!

Your "To a Defender of Poetic Tradition" made me laugh, hiss and call "burn!" again and again.

The poem itself indicts "page poets" for one of my most frequent "criminal" complaints: the fucking absence of humor. (I should say "many," or "so many," are humorless-- your poem's bitch-slap against over-generalization is a note I need to take, too.)

I haven't read the anti-slam article yet. I'll come back for it. (I have to brace myself for an attack of helpless acrimony.)

Thanks for adding to this thread. My two cents for the day:

What I cleave to about my hometown slam (shout-out, Maxwell Mitchell and Mr. Spreadlove https://www.facebook.com/events/3392...54719038447526) is likely true of all slams: the poets' clear concern for audience, for ears and the in-built audience response. Silence means two very different things at a slam as opposed to a "literary" reading, or open mic sponsored by the Poetry Cartel.

And oh yeah: effing racism / boojie classism. Those repugnant creatures lurk in every "broad brush" dismissal of slams and slam poetry / spoken word I've ever heard.

Thanks again, man. The poem we've talked about made my day. I really appreciate the laughs, and the thoughts. (I can easily imagine future conversations in which I could just say, 'Read this,' hand off this poem. So thanks for the breath and diastolic BP points saved, too.) I'll return for the other poem and I'll visit your site.

Hope to see you around the 'Sphere, too.

Best regards,
Daniel