Not Your Grandma's Poetry.

When some people think about poetry, they might recall Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” or Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Dream Within a Dream”. Others might recall the classic writings of Shakespeare, written with elegant words and cryptic metaphors on the human condition. However, in the last few decades, these conventions have been challenged and there’s a poetry movement that’s shaping a new culture. Writing void of strict form or prose and having an equal share of importance placed on the spoken delivery, they call it Slam Poetry.

According to The Complete Idiots Guide to Slam Poetry, in 1984, a poet by the name of Marc Kelly Smith had an idea to start a poetry reading night at a lounge in Chicago. The Monday Night Poetry reading at the Get Me High lounge was an event where people could perform poetry instead of just reading it. As with many spins on convention, the poetry reading needed to be called something new. The weekly event was called a Slam and gave Smith the nickname Slam Papi. Smith’s idea was slightly controversial, but did catch on in the city. To the naysayers, Smith said, “The very word 'poetry' repels people. Why is that? Because of what schools have done to it. The slam gives it back to the people.... We need people to talk poetry to each other. That's how we communicate our values, our hearts, the things that we've learned that make us who we are.”

At a traditional poetry reading, a poet would simply recite or read a poem. Little emphasis was placed on the idea of performing or acting out the emotion of the piece. The audience would listen to the poem, take in the imagery and reflect on the poet’s words. In Slam Poetry, the poems are delivered as a performance. Poems are written with the intention to not only be spoken, but to be performed. If there were an emotion of anger in a poem, the poet would recite it in anger. If there was a lighthearted gesture, a poet might lift their hands and elevate the tone of their voice to exemplify that emotion.

Following the genesis of the Slam in Chicago, the first National Poetry Slam took place in San Francisco in 1990. By this time the Slam evolved from a new way of performing poetry into a competition. Poets would perform their original poems and be judged by their peers. Rules were made and performances had to be delivered within a three-minute time limit and no props or costumes could be used. Five judges would be selected from the audience, who would give a score between one and 10. The highest and lowest scores were dropped and the middle three added up for a total score out of 30. These rules are the same today. The National Poetry Slam included an individual poet competition, as well as a team competition, which introduced the performance of a poem by more than one poet.

The competition in San Francisco saw competitors from San Francisco, Chicago and New York. Over the course of almost two decades, the National Poetry Slam grew to such popularity that it had been hosted in cities all over the United States. In 2003, slam poetry made its way north of the border with support from the Canada Council for the Arts. The Canadian Spoken Wordlympics debuted as a festival at the National Library in Ottawa late in 2004. In 2005, the festival was rebranded the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word and has been hosted in major cities across Canada every year since.

Fast-forward to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC and the world is introduced to Canadian poet and author Shane Koyzcan. Television Blend Journalist Kelly West commented, “After watching the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics tonight, the part that stood out most in my mind was Shane Koyczan’s “We Are More” speech.” The speech that West is referring to was actually slam poetry. Koyczan was already over 10 years into his poetry career by the time he performed his ode to Canada at the Opening Ceremonies and was the first Canadian to win the Individual Championship at the US National Poetry Slam back in 2000.

London has it’s own slam poetry community called Speak Your Truth. They hold a monthly slam competition where they invite a feature poet to perform. They have had features from all over Canada and the United States, including Shane Koyczan. In January of this year, poet and author Brendan McLeod, who is a teacher at Langara College in Vancouver, was the feature guest. Having been a slam poet for the last seven years and winning the 2004 Canadian Slam Poetry championship, McLeod says “Back in 2004 … if you were to walk down the street and go to high schools, no one really knew what slam poetry was. Now, 8 years later, there’s almost 20 teams on the Nationals Final stage … and everyone in high school knows what slam poetry is.”

Following the slam, there's a creative writing workshop where the feature poet gives advice on writing and performing for anyone who attends. These kinds of initiatives help to further advance the community and move the community forward to explore new ideas and elevate their creativity. It doesn't cost much to get involved in the slam community and the overall vibe is welcoming and fun. Look for a slam near you and unleash your creativity!