The Colorful History of Slam Poetry

The Slam poetry movement is a form of poetry based more on performance than literary quality, though in recent years there has been an attempt among its adherents to balance these virtues. It is perhaps the most popular form of poetry in the U.S. being practiced today. We have the Slam culture to thank for the resurgence in the popularity of poetry in the cultural subconscious and conscious. What began as a purely tongue-in-cheek American literary game has now become a global phenomena with vibrant Slam scenes in Ireland, Canada, Germany, Sweden, France, Austria, Switzerland, Nepal, the Netherlands, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Sarajevo, Bosnia, and Macedonia.

The premise of a poetry Slam is competition. Sometimes poets perform as individuals and sometimes as teams with coaches. They take turns performing original works composed by individuals within the team. The audience scores the performances and thus a winner is determined. Sometimes there is a cash prize. The kind of poetry that this sort of charged, two-way conversation has engendered is unique. Many of its present practitioners draw heavily from hip-hop performance styles and from dub poetry. The works tend to be theatrical and often political.

Thus, the Slam culture is often compared to hip-hop music, and I began to wonder if there is a true connection regarding the origins of the movement. There is not. Any connection to hip-hop has been a recent cross-pollination as the Slam aesthetic has developed. In truth, its origins are firmly grounded in the punk rock scene of the late '70s and early '80s.

By the 1970s, the rebellion against establishments that had begun in the '50s and '60s had fostered a ripe environment of experimentation on every level. It was a time of aggressiveness which has no counterpart today. The Beat poets were, by then, famous literatti and their philosophies had had plenty of time to root their influences into the next generation of poets. Thanks to Ginsberg, Kerouac, et al., poetry was no longer an art form practiced almost exclusively for other poets in stuffy institutional halls. It was becoming once again a living, breathing pulse of the street. The Beat influence was most readily seen in music, such as Bob Dylan's flights of earthy fancy.

Then punk rock happened. A noisy, disharmonious genre, punk rock was all about rebellion and experimentation. It didn't matter if the majority of its bands couldn't play their instruments (that was part of the beauty of it) or that the attire was more fitted for carnival and Mardi Gras than anything seen in the music world before that. This was a genre where anything went as long as it was true to the average Joe, (more often than not, true to the average angsty teen Joe). It was a genre in which absolutely nothing was sacred and serious anymore and, for that reason, had become even more serious still.

The stage was set for Slam. The dates and peculiars of its origin are a matter of some question, since it began in different ways and at different times for different people. But the truth is it began in Chicago in 1979 when some poets who were looking for a little money and something fun and different to do took a cue from punk rock, boxing, and professional wrestling. As a gag, they walked out into a boxing ring in front of a very non-literary audience and performed some of their original works, asking the audience to score the performances by holding up numbered cards, like at the Olympics. The poet with the highest score won.

It was a success, so they held a few more such events in 1980. As the number and variety of the audience grew, so did the fun. The common practice in Slam poetry of having a nick-name (Def-Jam Poet, etc.) had its beginning in the humorous showmanship of these events. The participating poets began dressing like boxers, with nick-names scrawled across the backs of their robes. There were girls in bikinis and rounds just like a boxing event, only instead of gloves, the weapons they used were words.

"We were with the punk scene. A lot of forces were converging in Chicago at the same time," Elaine Equi remarks. "Suddenly there was an audience for poetry. There really isn't anything that close to the experience today except in rap music."

All of this took place outside of Chicago's established literary circles and recognition from them was slow in coming. As today's detractors highlight, the mainstream poets of the time were off-put by the crudeness of competition, believing that poetry is above such things. And it is, as any Slammer will tell you. It's all about the theatrics and the fun. It took nearly a decade for the rest of the literary world to accept these early Slammers.

The poets and their largely non-literary audiences formed bonds not common in the poetry world. The affection and extremes of opinion were more like the kind that punk rock fans had for their favorite band. If the performance was bad, they let you know. "It was the end of the punk age. Everybody was throwing stuff, swearing, insulting, and loud. It was a more verbally confrontational time, not just with us on stage but also with the audience, back and forth with the poet...Just that constant thing where you'd assault people verbally... ". Jerome Salla, another early participant, said, "It seemed kind of anti-art, so we said, 'Yeah, let's do that.'"

For some, Slam culture actually begins with Marc Smith and the Get Me High Lounge. Normally, the Get Me high was a jazz club located in the center of Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood, but by 1985 the poets took over every Monday night. Still, no one- not even the Slammers themselves- took it very seriously until one of the regulars, an elderly gentleman named John Scroggins was killed in a car accident. Several recorded cassette tapes of the Monday night competition farces were found on him. Suddenly, that which was not sacred and serious had become just that and more so.

Shortly after this, Marc Smith and a few others started the 4 page newsletter Open Mike, which advertised the performances. By 1987, It had become an insert in a larger Chicago publication, The Letter eX. "Marc worked harder than we did for the Slam. He saw it as a promotable phenomenon." Equi said. He also talent-scouted for other potential Slammers and as early as 1985 or '86 was arranging similar events at the Déjà Vu Lounge.

In 1986, the Get Me High was sold and the Slam headquarters was forced to relocate. So they set up in The Green Mill. This is another point in time that some mark as the birth of Slam, likely because they are not familiar with what came before. It was around this time that the first Slam team was organized, called the Chicago Ensemble and term "slamming" was coined. The first official Slam competition was called "The Uptown Poetry Slam". These were originally more exhibition bouts than competitions at first, but were in every other respect like today's Slams.

"Nobody knew what a slam was at this point, so we were helping to define the process," said Jean Howard. "The whole idea was to help the public understand what a slam was. We went into it to be very obvious, but also let people know that there was a lot more to it than just a contest, that we could be quiet, subtle, or dramatic, whatever..."

By 1990, the idea had caught fire. Poets were coming into Chicago from all over the nation to learn how to Slam. There were similar competitions being put on in other cities. It was also in 1990 that the first national Slam was held. Today, as we have seen, it is a global phenomenon and has been around long enough to influence the next generation of poets. Any takers?

RESOURCES:

An Incomplete History of Slam, Kurt Heintz, http://www.e-poets.net/library/slam/converge.html, e-poets.net, 1994 and 1996.

Poetry Slam, Various, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_slam, Wikipedia.