Slam poetry is a genre. Or how to avoid slam clichés…

I saw someone share Canadian poet Chris Gilpin’s blog from last year arguing that we need to avoid “adopting the term ‘slam poet’”. Slam poetry, he says, is not a ‘genre’. It’s a way of running an open mic and it’s an international movement, emerging historically with the aim of freeing poetry from the “elite cultural gatekeepers”. It is excellent critique and I hope it is read far and wide by young poets who engage in live performance. Gilpin complains:

“Aspiring slam participants (and apparently even those who have no interest in participating) … copy the most obvious elements of performance cliché—yelling, speed, tones of distress, waving their arms—believing that they are correctly recreating a cool, new poetic style. In this way, the idea of slam poetry has crushed a great deal of artistic self-expression, encouraging poets to conform to something they can’t even define.”

The fact that he can describe a set of conventions in writing and delivery which are followed by its producers and recognised by its consumers suggests that ‘slam poetry’ has become a genre. And that genre is a bit wack. Can we turn back the tide? I’ve been running slams for ten years now in the UK, so I thought I’d give some tips for fellow poets to consider.

Chris Gilpin

Hammer & Tongue Hackney, November 5th 2013

“Stephen: (He taps his brow) But in here it is I must kill the priest and the king.” – Ulysses, James Joyce

1. On this 5th November at the Victoria, 451 Queensbridge Road, Dalston, E8 3AS, we are preparing a night of poetic fireworks in solidarity with regicides everywhere. So from 8pm, we have two talented spoken word artists for you:

Why slams and what makes good slam poetry?

With a week to go to the Hammer & Tongue national poetry slam final, I thought I’d put some thoughts together about why we have slams and what I think makes good poetry.

The job of the critic, said T. S. Eliot, is “the elucidation of texts and the correction of tastes.” You might not like the sound of the latter phrase, but let’s follow its implications more carefully; elucidate it, if you will. Now, if you believe that all experience of art is subjective (i.e. there is no such thing as good and bad art, just what different people like) then ‘correcting tastes’ might seem a pointless, even elitist task. And so it is if only a predestined elect get the job of taste-correction. Indeed this may be what snobbish, protestant Eliot would have wanted.

The Death of Poetry greatly exaggerated

Two things strike me about Nathan Thompson’s online article in The Independent about “performance poetry slams” being “a further nail in the coffin” of poetry. Firstly, it says something about the media as it exists online today and secondly, it says something about the current view of poetry.

To summarise: Thompson’s article says: “Poetry is dead” and young people do not know any poets. Slams are part of modern “quick fix culture” and thus further destroy our ability to appreciate good poetry. Defenders of performance poetry have wrongly “politicised” the debate and are attacking an “ivory tower” that has never existed. Poetry is accessible, but only to people who have the patience to take it in slowly, “like sipping a fine wine”. See full text here if you want to read the full article.

Hammer & Tongue Hackney, Tuesday June 5th, The Victoria, Dalston

We kick off the Hammer & Tongue summer with touring poet, Andy Craven Griffiths, singer with Leeds-based Middleman, but also a poet who has that rare ability to capitivate.

Hammer & Tongue National Slam Final

Overview of the evening’s event at the 2012 H&T National Final at Wilton’s Music Hall

In Defence of Slams

At the question and answer session after a Michael Horovitz gig on Friday I asked him what he thought were the differences between the live poetry scene of the ‘50s and ‘60s and the scene now. It will not surprise anyone who knows him to hear that his answer was quite long and rambling  and enjoyable. He said the scene of the ‘60s was part of a general democratic movement and that some of those poems actually precipitated various protests and movements. Now, he said, not enough young poets are dealing with the political issue of wealth/class inequality and that there are these ‘dreadful’ things called ‘slams’, which perpetuate, instead of challenging, hierarchies, making it seem like it’s all about being the best. 

Slam on the Water II, Regents Canal-side, Broadway Market Sat 3rd March 2012

On a sunny but cold day in mid January, we experimented with running a slam from the top of the bookshop barge at Broadway Market, which turned out to be a massive success. Due to popular demand – we’re going to do it again on March 3rd at 2pm. We’re looking for poets to take part and people to come and judge them or just watch and enjoy.

Hammer and Tongue Camden, Mon 9th Jan 2012

Co-Hosting Hammer and Tongue in Camden with Michelle Madsen on Monday 9th Jan. The Green Note Cafe, 106 Parkway, NW1 7AN

http://www.facebook.com/events/237967886276777/

Slam at the Floating Bookshop, Broadway Market Sat 14th Jan 2pm

I’m hosting a slam from the top of a barge-bookshop that’s moored on the canal at Broadway Market during market day at 2pm Saturday 14th January. So that’s pop-up poetry at a pop-up bookshop on a pop-up market. Triple pop-up in your face. Poets come down and slam, passers by turn up and judge or watch and cheer while they eat their artisan breads and drink boho coffee-cider.