How to Perform in a Poetry Slam

When you hear the words "poetry slam," what comes to mind? Rap? Gunshots? Enthusiastic crowds? With the exception of the gunshots, you're likely to see all this and more at a poetry slam, which is comprised mostly of spoken word poetry.

The difference between spoken word poetry and your average poetry on the written page is that spoken word is meant to be heard. Like Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti's beat poetry from the '60s, the spoken word of today is best performed onstage.

My first experience doing spoken word, technically, was at Adelphi University's Open Mic Nights. Though a variety of acts took the stage, poetry was extremely popular. One of the regular hosts, Campbell Kennedy, was quite an aficionado of the genre. During one of his stints as MC, Kennedy performed the poem "Sha-Clack-Clack" by Saul Williams, a major voice in the spoken word arena. Needless to say, his performance blew me out of my seat.

The way in which Kennedy performed was unlike any poetry reading I'd ever witnessed. He moved about the stage as if he were dancing, enunciating certain words like musical notes, and captivating the audience. Here is a clip of Saul Williams performing the very same poem: YouTube: Sha-Clack-Clack.

Credited with inventing the poetry slam is Marc Smith, a.k.a. "Slampappy," a Chicago poet who co-produced the original "Uptown Poetry Slam." The event in question took place at the Green Mill Lounge, on N. Broadway St. in Chicago, according to The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.

One of Smith's best-known poems is "Lucky Strike No Strike Back," in which he reminisces about stepping on a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes:

"Lucky Strike No Strike Back"
Packs a hard memory for me.
On my first day walking to school
Unescorted by my mother
Wade Corner of the third grade
Stepped on a Lucky Strike pack
And smacked me whack in the shoulder
Hard as he could making me cry.

Though this verse could be read like any other poem, if you listen closely, you can hear the tight rhythms embedded in the words. The ends of the lines don't rhyme; however, you may notice some internal rhyme, as in "And smacked me whack in the shoulder." Many spoken word poets use rhyme, but it isn't absolutely necessary.

Since it draws from beat poetry, many of the images and themes may ring familiar to those who know the Beatniks. Ginsberg's Howl, for example, uses repetition and rhythm found in much of contemporary slam poetry:

Who lit cigarettes in boxcars boxcars boxcars racketing
through snow toward lonesome farms in grandfather night

The repetition of the word "boxcars" not only creates rhythm within the line, but also elicits imagery of a train passing over the tracks. In this way, spoken word can be akin to theatre, or music. Just as a skilled playwright looks for rhythm within his words and lines, so does the effective slam poet know how to make a poem into a song.

Much of slam poetry is very political as well, drawing on such themes as war, racism, street violence, anti-government sentiment, and religious themes. Patricia Smith, one of the most powerful and notorious slam poets of the present day, once penned a poem entitled "Skinhead," in which she writes from the point-of-view of a White Supremacist:

They call me skinhead, and I got my own beauty.
It is knife-scrawled across my back in sore, jagged letters.
It's in the way my eyes snap away from the obvious.
I sit in my dim matchbox,
on the edge of a bed tousled with my ragged smell,
slide razors across my hair,
count how many ways
I can bring blood closer to the surface of my skin.

Smith, being black, brings a fascinating perspective to this poem. Not only is she taking a trip into the mind poisoned with racist fear, she also embodies what that might feel like in her words. Phrases such as "knife-scrawled" and "dim matchbox" are rife with sound and imagery. Spoken word, having the rhythmic sense that it does, is made that much better by using onomatopoeias.

Onomatopoeias, in the words of tnellen.com, are "words that imitate the sounds they represent." Though not exclusive to spoken word, they are a valuable tool in such poems. Williams' "Sha-Clack-Clack" takes an onomatopoeia as its title, which is later incorporated into a verse in the poem:

And I be spittin' at death from behind
And puttin' KICK ME signs on its back
Because I am not the son of SHA-CLACK-CLACK!

Williams seems to be evoking the black man's past as a slave in this verse, the "Sha-Clack-Clack" sound representing a whip cracking. This sound is repeated several times throughout the poem, building in intensity each time. The onomatopoeia punctuates the verses and emphasizes the various themes.

When writing your own poem, draw on personal experience as much as possible. While you may not have suffered the hardships of Williams and Smith, there is surely some sort of conflict or difficulty in your life that you want to express.

I've heard many a slam poet talk about relationships, as well as sex, in their work. However, to set themselves apart from the romantic poets of yore, many modern artists use vastly different imagery or descriptive terms. If your poem is about sex, for example, you may want to write words that evoke the rhythms of sexual intercourse, or the sounds that a couple makes in the process. As to the words you should use...I'll leave that up to you, fellow poets.

In this clip from Russell Simmons' "Def Poetry Jam," poet/rapper Talib Kweli performs his poem "Hell": Talib Kweli: Hell. If you listen closely, you'll be able to hear the rhythms in his voice, as well as the tone he uses. This isn't to say that you should try to sound like Kweli, or Saul Williams, or Patricia Smith; find your own voice. However, many musicians, poets, and artists "borrow" from one another. Take your influences and incorporate them into your own poetry, while still making it yours.

Another fantastic poet that I happened to know in college wrote a poem entitled "Drum-Drum Man," in which she described what appeared to be a man playing percussion. Because the poem was so abstract, however, it could mean many things to each person that heard it. Like "Sha-Clack-Clack" and "Howl," it had many different rhythms, and words that induced sound in the minds of listeners. Though she refused to explain the meaning behind the poem, you could say that each member of the audience "got it" in his or her own way.

Poetry slams, unlike other readings, are always a competition. Judges are often picked randomly from the audience, and performers are given scores on a scale of 0-10. At any given slam, you may hear poetry resembling any of the above examples, or something else entirely. It all depends what the performers are feeling at that moment.

Should you decide to participate, remember this: be yourself. Craft your own vocal style, and speak about your experiences in a way that the audience might understand. Even if you don't score well, you deserve kudos for having the guts to take the stage. Not only that, it's likely you'll come away with something from the experience, whether it's cathartic, or it gives you a chance to learn from your fellow competitors.

Now go perform.

Sources:
Acey, Camille. Sha Clack Clack: Revolutionary Temporality in the work of Saul Stacey Williams.
Ginsberg, Allen. Howl and Other Poems.
Kaufman, Alan, ed. The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.
TNEllen.com. 05 Sept. 2008. Literary Terms: Onomatopoeia.