I feel like my essay really relates to Drake's rap song that repeats: "We started from the bottom now we here" a billion times. This is because at the beginning of the process I had no idea where I was going to go (like all beginnings I guess), but I knew that I wanted to do something with slam poetry because I was really intrigued by it. My first post regarding my paper entitled "Let's Rewind to My Love for Slam Poetry," announces my official decision to write on slam poetry and also talks about my first social interaction on my essay through Facebook. For my social assignment, I posted a status of my tentative thesis and asked for people's opinions. I wasn't expecting a lot, but a random acquaintance from high school commented who is studying drama and poetry (including slam poetry) at NYU and was very knowledgeable and helpful. He told me his favorite slam poets and the variety of styles within performance poetry of which slam poetry is only one of many. I became interested in performance poetry at large for awhile and in my second post, Claims about Slam Poetry, I formulated different thesis statements, and from input from my fab teacher and fellow students, I chose the cause and effect claim format. I thought about my thesis a little more and added a definition claim to it and then posted my newly revised and more deeply thought through thesis in my third post My New and (hopefully) Improved Thesis. Before the creating the post, I followed up with my random acquaintance from high school and he gave me a couple pointers on how to improve it. This post marks my move from creating my thesis into brainstorming for more ideas to support the thesis. My fourth and fifth posts Shakespearean Sonnets Performed and What is the Genre of Performance Poetry Anyway?!, I developed my ideas through comparing two varying versions of performance poetry and plain written poetry. This led me to some interesting observations, such as how emotions are more poignantly transferred through visual/performance oriented styles of poetry. I also analyzed the genre of performance poetry and came to the conclusion that slam poetry is more engaging because of the performance aspect and because it's more like verbally communicating with people and being able to see their body language. My last two posts on the subject are my rough drafts in various stages of completion. My first draft, Slamming out my rough draft (hehe--slam poetry)!, despite the ridiculous name was actually very beneficial to me because it allowed for me to get my ideas out on the page. I took the ideas from my first draft and polished them more in My Not Quite Finalized Final Draft. This draft was then taken to class and peer reviewed by the one and only Charly, who was very helpful in giving me advice on my paper such as formalizing my diction and giving more concrete examples for the claims I was making. Thanks Charly! :) And thanks to my NYC friend as well as everyone else who gave me helpful suggestions. More shout outs to Briggs, Caitlyn, and of course Dr. Burton!
And now, without further ado, after my very socially engaged and pleasantly arduous (paradox haha) essay writing journey, I have arrived at my finished product. Here it is!
The Power of Slam Poetry
The literary critic Harold Bloom in The Paris Review labeled slam poetry as “The death of art” and saw
this fledgling form as primarily “rant and nonsense” (Bloom). However, if one
actually takes into account the performance of slam poetry and how it connects
to ancient history, it is hard to agree with Bloom’s position. The art of
poetry predates literacy and documentation. Before anything was written down, stories
were told and performed to preserve the history and culture of a people. The
oral performance of a story is something that has always united a community and
reminded them of their heritage. From Mesopotamia's Epic of Gilgamesh to Homer's Iliad
in Ancient Greece to Beowulf in
Anglo- Saxon England, history and folklore was stylized into stories that were
always performed, and their existing text is oftentimes an inadequate
representation of the performance that characterized poetry up until the Middle
Ages. The roots of all poetry are
intertwined with this ancient oral tradition, however, the performance aspect
of this tradition has been lost somewhere along the way. With the emergence of
slam poetry, the art of oral performance from the original poetic tradition is
evoked once again. Though many view slam poetry as inferior to what they see as
"traditional" poetry, the slam style is actually superior because the
performance element ties slam poetry back to the poetic oral tradition and makes
the medium more engaging and communally uniting.
Slam poetry and ancient poetry, despite being on the
opposite book-ends of time, have a lot in common. Both modes of poetry are
performed in front of a live and captive audience and both the ancient Greek
poet and the modern slam poet usually recite the poem by heart, but at the same
time leave room for improvisation. The Greek poet would tell a story that was
passed down to him from another poet, who had the poem passed down to him as
well. This oral tradition was how poetry was retained and delivered. The words
of the poems recited were always different and each performance was a unique
event, much like slam poetry, where the performer takes into account the energy
of the crowd and caters to the different circumstances each performance
delivers.
Slam poetry also relates to ancient Greek poetry in a
musical sense. Greek poetry was usually sung or chanted while the poet
accompanied himself on the lyre (“Homer”). The song the poet sang along to was
not overly melodic, but was there to establish a rhythm that was pleasing to
listen to. Slam poets usually do not employ musical instruments during their
performances, but the way they speak tends to fall into a rhythm that
accentuates certain words so that many performances sound like rap. Some slam
poets connect directly back to the ancient Greek mode by including musical
accompaniment. Some of John G. Rives’ poems include a live band, like his piece
“Sellout.” While Rives recites his poem, the band sometimes stops and starts at
certain parts to accent certain phrases and at other times keeps a steady
rhythm reminiscent of the ancient Greek lyre. Slam poetry’s strong connections
to the original style of poetry in regards to oral performance legitimizes
slam’s form and grounds it in history.
The superiority of slam poetry partially stems from how
much more entertaining it is than reading poetry on a page. Being at a slam
poetry concert reportedly has the same feel as a soccer game, where people are
riotous, engaged and exuberant. This atmosphere is also reminiscent of the
ancient Greek religious festivals where communities gathered together in good
spirits to listen to “the muses” or the poets perform. “The occasions [were]
festive; you had a good time in feast or celebration or procession when the
Muses spoke” (Havelock 81). The allure
and excitement of performance poetry that was popular with the ancient Greeks
is becoming popular again today. Song lyrics and theatre share the performance
aspect with slam poetry, but arguably do not feel as intimate or as exciting
because there is not as much of a possibility for variance or improvisation.
With ancient poetry, as well as with slam poetry, the bard often drew upon a
basic plot structure and filled the rest in as he went along which made for
performances that were unique every time (“Homer”). It is this
uniqueness, this electric uncertainty that is exhilarating and engaging. The actress Maggie Smith describes this magic
of performance: “I like the ephemeral thing about theatre, every performance is
like a ghost - it's there and then it's gone.” This same statement, while
referring to theatre, can be applied to slam poetry (even more so) due to the
fact that slam poets often incorporate more improvisation into their poems than
actors do in their parts. It is this very element of uncertainty that requires
on the spot sprezzatura, or timely wit, that makes watching these
performers infinitely more entertaining than reading the poem on one’s own.
Take Shake the
Dust by Anis Mojgani, for example. Because it is a fairly popular slam
poem, there are multiple versions of it being performed at various venues.
After watching a few performances of this same poem, it becomes clear that
Mojgani’s performance changes according to the reactions and the feeling of his
audience. Sometimes his opening line “This is for the fat girls” elicits a
cacophony of laughter, other times merely a quiet chuckle. This example
illustrates how a slam poem is a living, breathing thing that fluctuates, and
that is what makes it infinitely more engaging than reading the poem on a page.
The live performance of a slam poem is able to convey the emotion and concept
of the poem clearly and strongly. Communicating emotion is something that slam
poetry does particularly well and better than most mediums because it is less
structured and rigid and more like an unadulterated view into a person’s soul.
The emotions of the slam poet are exposed in front of the audience, as they
often speak about real experiences from their own lives. It is the human
vulnerability of the slam poet that allows for more engagement and interest on
the part of the listener. When the stakes are higher, the entertainment is
heightened. This is something that was true in the earliest forms of poetry and
is still true today in poetry’s more modern forms.
The Greek community gathered together to listen to
poetry, which strengthened their societal bond and cultural tradition. The
ancient Greek poet “commemorate[ed], however indirectly, a system of social
communication in a culture of primary orality in which such communication [was]
shaped and performed to preserve the cultural tradition” (Havelock 81). This is effectively what slam poets do when
they perform. They gather together people from across racial and cultural
divisions together and create a heterogeneous community. The feeling of a slam
poetry performance is also similar to a comedy play, where the audience and the
actors become one big community by the end, and a sense of camaraderie seems to
connect everyone. Slam poetry, like a comedy play, has the power to connect an
audience. Just as the Greek poets were able to connect audiences together with
stories that enveloped them into their culture, so does slam poetry envelop the
audience into one cognizant, human whole.
However, the slam poetry audience does not adhere to one
culture and history; in fact, slam poetry is notorious for poets and audiences
made up of dramatically different individuals. Unlike ancient Greek poetry, the
slam poetry arena is a place where anyone, regardless of their experience
level, can participate if they have the guts. The open participation makes way
for the whole community to take part and gives voices that accurately represent
the community’s concerns the chance to be heard. In the 2006 Annual Teen Poetry
Slam, Zora Howard spoke out about the issue of being defined as bi-racial and about
how she transcends all definitions in her poem Bi-Racial Hair. Her message is not only applicable to those who are
bi-racial, but strikes a chord with anyone who has ever not quite fit in. Even
though this message comes from an African-American teenage girl, it seems to
transcend to the core of what it means to be human.
Slam poetry is all about true emotions and pride in
difference. Many, if not most, slam poets are ethnic and often from poor
backgrounds. For example, the poet Aja Monet is a 19-year-old from Harlem who
speaks from the heart of the harshness in poverty-stricken urbanity in her poem
What I’ve Learned. She speaks frankly about alcohol, insanity and sex
and captures the sadness, joy and madness of her entire life in a beautiful and
very raw way. She shows how slam poetry returns poetry to real life. When poetry
became sealed up in anthologies and libraries away from people, performance
poetry, including slam poetry, took it down and gave it back to the community
in its most meaningful source as a unifying power. Slam poetry “has taken
poetry out of the classroom and repositioned it firmly in the hands of people.”
Poetry is so much more connected to the rawness of the individual in the slam
form, which creates an openness that invites the whole community to become
united under a common humanity.
After delving into the engaging and unifying elements unique
to slam poetry and returning back the beginning critique of Bloom’s that slam
poetry is “the death of art,” it appears that slam poetry is actually the revival of art in so many ways. For one
thing, the performance aspect of slam revives the original oral tradition of
poetry that was used for centuries. This form is expressive and rhythmic, which
creates an engaging performance. The oral performance of slam poetry also leaves
room for improvisation and opens the performance up to chance—it is a riskier
style, which creates an increased sense of interest and excitement. Slam poetry
benefits from the human connection that takes place during slam competitions as
well. Slam poetry is not something isolated on a page, but a social event which
brings people together and creates emotional connection through the powerful
messages of the slam poet. Slam poetry may not have impeccable iambic
pentameter and may not properly invoke the muses, but it does unite the
audience under one common humanity. Even if the poetry is not formalized or
“traditional,” it simulates life in its realness and exposes real issues. Slam
poetry is a medium that can change the world through the deep power of human
connection.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold, et al. "The Man in the Back Row has a
Question VI." The Paris Review 2000: 370. Print.
Havelock, Eric
A. The Muse Learns to Write. 1986.
New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986. Print.
"Homer."
The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Ed. Howatson, M. C.: Oxford
University Press, 2011. Web. 11 Jun. 2013.
Howard, Zora. Bi-Racial Hair. <
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTnxJdxhU7o>
Mojgani, Anis. Shake
The Dust. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PWrlOgrzHQ>
Monet, Aja. What I’ve Learned. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8byI76vKZwg>
Woods, Scott.
"Poetry Slams: The Ultimate Democracy of Art." World Literature Today
82.1 (2008): 16-9. Print.
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