Poetry Slams

Poetry actually speaks. Not all poetry, however, is spoken aloud. One genre of poetry that is intentionally spoken is often referred to as spoken word or poetry slams. Poetry Slams are typically preformed in front of an audience, and read or memorized by the poet.  UHS held an open mic night on Feb. 11 where people preformed any type of piece they wanted; including spoken word.

Rachel Moyer, teacher at UHS and sponsor of the Creative Writing club, said, “I love how people can use rhythm to help enhance the words in their poetry. I am not as talented as UHS students, but I have performed spoken word at open mic nights in college about issues that are important to me, like feminism. I think the most powerful thing any writer can do is write about what they know or write about what they’re passionate about. Preforming any writing takes confidence, but when you’re writing about something you feel strongly about it feels natural to share it. I currently sponsor the Creative Writing club, which invites all spoken word artists to join- we meet Thursdays after school, and everyone is welcome! My favorite spoken word artists are UHS students.”

In Chicago in 1984, a construction worker by the name of Marc Smith was hosting poetry slams in a jazz club lounge called Get Me High Lounge. Smith had the idea to match poet’s performances against each other. According to Chris McCarthy, Dave Jemilo promoted Smith’s idea of hosting a weekly poetry performance on Sunday nights. Smith then created a point rating on which poets were judged on a scale of one to ten, one being the lowest score. The audience’s reaction was important; the more the audience responded the better. The judges were picked randomly from the audience. Smith’s idea was to make it so the poets connected with the audience while keeping their own views. Poetry slams then officially originated on July 25, 1986.

The first National Poetry Slam competition was in San Francisco in 1990. According to Chris McCarthy, a different city hosts the competition every year since the first one. Every team can take four people along when they compete against other poets all over North America and Europe, with an individual winner being selected. There are countless of spoken word poets around the world. A great spoken word group is The Strivers Row, who includes poets by the names of Alysia Harris, Zora Howard, Carvens Lissaint, Joshua Bennett, Miles Hodges, and Jasmine Mans.

Spoken word has many platforms, with one of them being television. There used to be a show called Brave New Voices on HBO, which featured poets that preformed original pieces. There is a show now called Verses & Flow on TV One, which features poets and other artists and is now accepting submissions for season four of the show.

Spoken word poets have also been showcased on the YouTube show TEDTalks. There are also other videos on YouTube where people put up spoken word directly to the audience of the web, and others to a live audience where the poet(s) is taped.

Spoken word is an art that is growing in popularity with social media and is a great way to connect with people. Words can transform worlds and create power within oneself. It is important to have a voice, and spoken word is a great example of using words in a way that creates emotion in others. Each poet is unique in their writing and how they preform and reach their audiences, and the message behind the poet is decided by how you feel after the words are said. With words one can create life in others through voice.