Poetry Slam: A Theatrical Version of Poetry

  

0. Abstract

Slam poetry or poetry slam is a new concept in Nepal. It is a combination of lyrical mastery with the power of presentation. A slam poet channels the passion contained within words and expresses this to an audience through his or her performance.

This paper tries to analyze the theatrical qualities of slam poetry. This paper contains Introduction to Poetry Slam (1), Practical Example: A Discussion (2), and Conclusion (3).

1. Introduction to Poetry Slam

The literal meaning of ‘slam’, according to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 7^th edition, is “to criticize sb/sth very strongly” (Wehmeier 2005: 1433). It helps us to guess the meaning of slam poetry that it is a strong form of expression. Another meaning of the word “slam” is: to push, to put or to throw something into a particular place or position with a lot of force. It shows that the word is related to the explicit physical actions.

Wikipedia defines slam poetry as “a competition at which poets read or recite original work” (“Poetry Slam”). The Kathmandu Post writes that it is “a performance based recital of original poetry” (8).

1.1. A Brief History of Poetry Slam

            Poetry slam was developed during 1980s. Marc Smith is regarded as the first slam poet who started it in November 1984. In 1990, the first National Poetry Slam, a competitive event, was organized in Fort Mason, San Francisco. The event had a team from Chicago, a team from San Francisco, and an individual poet from New York as its participants. Now almost 80 certified teams participate in this event each year. The competition is organized for five days. Slams have spread all over the world including Nepal (“Poetry Slam”).

In Nepal, the US Department recently sponsored a campaign called “A Poetry Slam Fortnight in Nepal” under its Cultural Envoy Program. Three American poets, Karen Finneyfrock, Matt Mason and Danny Solis, were invited to Nepal to perform, lecture and teach workshops about poetry slam for ten days. During their stay in Nepal, in the first and the second weeks of December, they educated more than 800 Nepali youths and poets in Kathmandu, Biratnagar and Itahari

On December 14, 2010, Quixote’s Cove, a bookshop located in Kathmandu, in collaboration with the US Embassy, organized “QC Awards 2010: The Poetry Slam” competition. It is the first of its kind in Nepal. Twenty student-participants contested in the programme for the top five positions. Emceed by two invited American Slam poets, Matt Mason and Danny Solis, and judged by Nayan Pokhrel, Viplob Pratik, Amod Bhattarai, Sarita Dewan and Karen Finneyfrock, the contest followed the standard rules of poetry slam. The top five contestants, viz. Ujjwala Maharjan, Yukta Bajracharya, Alisha Sapkota, Eliz Parajuli and Pratikshya Sharma were awarded with books from Quixote’s Cove bookstore (Maharjan 2010).

1.2. Types of Poetry Slam

            According to the styles of competition, a poetry slam can be of mainly three types: Open slam, Invitational slam, and Theme slam.

            Open slam is the most common type of slam. It is an open competition to all enthusiastic participants. Invitational slam is the competition for only those who are invited. Theme slam is based upon a specified theme, genre or formal limitation. The theme slam may also allow changes on the restrictions on costumes or props, the judging structure (e. g. having a specific guest judge), or the time limits (e.g. a slam with three rounds of one minute, two minutes, and three minutes, respectively). It also provides opportunity for the participation of particular and possibly underrepresented groups, e. g. high school poets, women poets, etc. (“Poetry Slam”)

1.3. Motifs and Theme in Poetry Slam

            A motif is “a conspicuous element” that “occurs frequently” (Abrams 2004:169) in a literary work. It may be an incident, device, reference, or formula.

            The most important elements in the poetry slams are the theatrical performance of the poets on the stage and the live audience. The poem is not only recited but also performed on the stage.

            The slam poetry or “the spoken word” is “the purest form of expression” (Sellmyer 2010). According to Nepali slam poet Nayan Sindhulia, it lets him convey his “exact thoughts without the room for interpretation that exists in written poetry” (qtd. in Sellmyer 2010). It is like any other stage performance, according to another Nepali slam poet Gaurab Subba, but where the stage performance relies on melody, beats or stage productions, slam poetry is “just one man on the stage” (ibid).

            In fact, poetry slam is a new form of poetry that “connects poetry with its early oral roots” (Folsom 2008). It features poets reciting their verse in competitions before boisterous audience.

            The “performance component” helps to consider a slam poem as “not a poem read aloud, but a fusion of 50% poem, 50% dynamic stage performance” (“Slam Poems”). Therefore, slam poems often use comical exaggerations, and strong emotions like love, heartbreak or outrage. They also borrow a lot from hip-hop styles which use a lot of internal rhymes and rhythmic flows without a rigid rhyme scheme. ‘Slang’ words are also frequently used in a slam poem to make it different from other poems (ibid). Therefore, it is an informal poem. Besides the frequently “shifting voices and tones”, slam poets may use “tap-dancing or beatboxing or highly choreographed movements” (ibid).

            By choosing the various styles and rhetorics, a poetry slam aims to “challenge the authority of anyone who claims absolute authority over literary value” (ibid). In fact, no poet is beyond critique, as everyone is dependent upon the goodwill of the audience. Since poetry slam helps to break down the “barriers between poet/performer, critic, and audience”, poet and critic Bob Holman claims that it is “the democratization of verse” (qtd. in “Poetry Slam”).

            But some people criticize slam poetry. Literary critic Harold Bloom has called it “the death of art”. Poet and singer John S. Hall hates poetry slam as it is “very much like a sport” that seems “very macho, masculine form of poetry” to him (ibid).

1.4. Performance System

            Poetry slam has its own specific system of performance. The event is a tough competition among the participant poets who are judged by the audience. First of all, the M. C. or host of the event chooses some representative members of the audience. They are the judges for the event. Generally, five judges are chosen for an event. Each of them awards a score to the participants. The scores generally range between zero and ten. The highest and the lowest scores are dropped, and each performance is given a rating between zero and thirty points.

            The host brings up a “sacrificial poet” before the actual competition begins. The judges warm up themselves by scoring the poet.

            Most of the slams have multiple rounds. The lower-scoring poets are eliminated in successive rounds. But some slams do not terminate poets.

            Most poetry slams have a time limit of three minutes and a grace period of ten seconds. After the time limit, a poet’s score may be deducted according to the time taken after the limit.

            Props, costumes, and music are generally forbidden in slams. (ibid)

2. Practical Example: A Discussion

2.1. A Slam Poem

                                   

   Snack Cakes

                        Hold me like the cream

                        holds the oatmeal,

                        like the fig grips the bar,

                        like the jelly holds

           

                        onto the roll. These flavors,

                        impermanent but inseparable,

                        joined for life

                        conceivably beyond

                        expiration dates and shelf-lives,

                        never know they grow old; they never

                        pass into that darkest maw

                        alone.                                                                           (Mason 2006: 53)

2.2. The Poem’s Theme and Motifs

            Undoubtedly, the poet’s theatrical performance and the audience’s response will be the most important factors for the effectiveness of the given poem. Since this is a poem written to be performed on the stage, the sequence of the dramatic actions will affect it very much. Almost fifty percent of the recitation will be covered by the use of comical exaggerations, and strong emotions (e.g. love, heartbreak, outrage, etc.). So, it will leave a lot of space for the subjective perceptions of both the poet and the audience.

            Despite this, the given poem contains some of the basic features of the slam poems. It doesn’t have any rigid rhyme scheme, but has its own rhythmic flow.

            Most of the lines of the poem contain assonance. The sound /i/ in ‘me’ and ‘cream’ (line 1), the sound /ǝʊ/ in ‘holds’ and ‘oatmeal’ (line 2), the sound /I/ in ‘fig’ and ‘grips’ (line 3), the sound /I/ in ‘impermanent’ and ‘inseparable’ (line 6), and the sound / ǝʊ/ in ‘grow’ and ‘old’ (line 10) are the assonances that provide musical aspiration to the poem. The line 10 also contains the internal rhyme ‘know/grow’ and alliteration ‘know/never’. So, it is the most musical or rhythmic line in the poem.

            The lines vary in metre, and all four types of foot are present. They contain: trochee, like in

            Hold me like the cream

               /       U   /      U    /

            holds the oatmeal, (line 1&2)

               /       U     /   U

iamb, like in,

            conceivably beyond (line 8)

            U /  U  /          U /

anapest, like in,

            expiration dates and shelf-lives (line 9)

            U U / U      /        U    U      /

and dactyl, like in

            never know they grow old; they never (line 10).

               /        U      U     /        U     U     /

2.3. The Possible Way of Performance

            A slam poet applies some special theatrics to perform a poem on the stage. Even while reading the given poem, the poet would apply such theatrics.

            First, while reading the first and the second lines, he might spread his both hands and slowly bring them together to hold the palms tight as if he is embracing somebody. Then he might gently touch his chest with both hands tightly clutched to each other. Opening them and spreading away from each other, he might face his both palms upwards to the sky and make a gesture of holding by gently folding his fingers.  When he reads the third line, he might turn his both palms upside with his fingers upright and alert in a circular row. Then, he might suddenly make a gripping gesture by tightly folding his fingers as if he is ready to blow a punch. Then, he might spread his fingers again to open his palms and swivel them over each other to refer to the stickiness of jelly in the fourth line.

            The poet might shape his fingers and palms into a tube like structure to refer to the ‘roll’ in the fifth line. To refer to the meaning of the words ‘inseparable’ and ‘joined’, the poet might cross his fingers into a knot and try to pull them out from each other. While reading the tenth line, the poet would show his both palms to the audience and wave them in wiping movement. The audience might understand that he meant ‘never know’. He would turn both palms round up with slight shrugs of his shoulders, first tense, then, slowly relaxing to come back to the previous position. It would mean the process of growing old. Then, slowly, he would make a gesture of being afraid and peering into something with wide open eyes and spread fingers. He would, then, fly his palms and move them to make a swallowing gesture while reading the last two lines of the poem.  

            The poet’s voice-level would rise and fall according to the stress and sound of the syllables in the individual words. The pronunciation of the words and the punctuation marks used in the lines of the poem might also affect it which would certainly support the above-mentioned gestures for the recitation of the given poem. The tone of the speaker overall in the poem would be persuasive.

2.4. The Desired Effect of the Poem on the Audience

            It is expected that the audience keenly watch all the bodily movements of the poet and get emotionally attached to him. They might feel as if they watched a one-man drama which presented their everyday experience in a new and an interesting way. They would appreciate the recitation cum performance of the poem.

3. Conclusion

            Poetry slam is mainly the competition based on the theatrical recitation of a poem. So, reading aloud is not sufficient at all for a poem to be a slam poem. It expects more from the poets. A slam poet is not only a speaker but also an actor on the stage.

References

Abrams, M. H. 2004. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Bangalore: Prism Books.

Folsom, Ed. 2008. “American Literature: Poetry”. Microsoft Encarta 2009 (DVD). Redmond, WA:

            Microsoft Corporation.

Maharjan, Tariff. “Slam is Over”. The Kathmandu Post. 26 Dec. 2010.

Mason, Matt. 2006. “Snack Cakes”. Things We Don’t Know We Don’t Know. Omaha, NE: The

            Backwaters Press.

Sellmyer, Amy. “The Spoken Word”. The Kathmandu Post. 27 Nov. 2010.

Wehmeier, Sally et. al.2005. Eds. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7^th ed. New Delhi:

            OUP.

“Poetry Slam”. Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_slam. 1 Dec. 2010. 6 Dec. 2010.

“Slam Poems”. n.d. http://drake.marin.k12.ca.us/staff/doherty/slam poems.htm. 6 Dec. 2010.

“Verse Time”. The Kathmandu Post. 16 Nov. 2010.

This paper was published in the CET Journal as:
"Poetry Slam: A Theatrical Version of Poetry". 2011. CET Journal. Vol. III, no. 1. Itahari: Itahari Research Centre, Circle of English Teachers.