d.c.

YOUTH POETRY
SLAM & Open Mic!
(Ages 5-20)
St. Paul, MN

The Second
Tuesday of every
month
5:30-8pm

Golden’s Deli
http://www.GOLDENSDELI.US
275 East 4th Street, Suite 102
Saint Paul MN 55101
Right next store to the Farmers Market in
Lowertown GOOGLE map click here

Have a wonderful day!

11. Be clear. After hearing your poem once, virtually every audience member should be able to walk away and describe or explain your poem in one simple sentence. Your poem can be complex and layered and detailed (and should be), but it should leave one dominant taste in your audience’s mouths.

Obviously, these examples oversimplify the poems and miss what makes them so great. However, that might be how a typical audience member remembers them, what they walk away with, and it’s important that they are able to articulate clearly what it is that you just shared with them.

We can give you some background on the history of slam poetry, but the history of spoken word isn’t really a history that people can accurately tell, as it’s as old as language. As long as people have told stories by firelight, as long as peoples have told their shared history, “spoken word” as an art has existed.

-Cole

I think I have the most objection to #2, but even that’s not a complete objection. I really agree with what you have to say about stylistic poems with little substance, how they may be great to listen to, but it’s an experience that fades more readily than a poem with a significant message.

However, as far as substance goes, the poems I don’t like in slams these days generally err on the side of too much substance rather than too much style. When the message I’m supposed to take away from a poem is too obvious or too bluntly phrased, I feel a little manipulated, or if not manipulated, then passive. I don’t like poems that feel like journalism, and I’m a guy who likes his journalism, i just prefer to keep the news in the AM with my coffee. I like to interact with poems more personally, so I like it when poems are a little more subtle around their message, and let me uncover it for myself, or give me some room to give it personal meaning. I think substance is important, but an emphasis on substance risks breaking rules 4 and 9 by manipulating the audience and/or talking at them.

Also, about being “good” in number 5, I think “good” should mean whatever we try to do better to improve as poets. The idea of “good” for slam poetry is extremely amorphous, and lists like yours are working towards finding that meaning. I think it think the best poems are the ones that are the best written, but by that I don’t mean that those poems are well written with all the conventions of the printed page in mind. There are many things that make a great written poem that don’t mean shit in a slam (enjambment, complex ideas that take more than 30 seconds to resolve, endings that encourage rereading).

Just like you said of assonance and alliteration, we need to find the rules that make good slam poetry so we can know how to break them intentionally.

I’m a big fan of your work, and I’m headed to the Soap Boxing Slam on Monday. Hope to see you there.

-Todd Anderson

To be included send an email to cole.sarar at gmail dot com with the subject line “Spoken Word Bio”. The contents should be 1. Your name and/or stage name, 2. the webpage you want linked to your name, and 3. a short biography (50 words or less).