A slam poem moves the audience through different moods. How the poem is performed is at least as important as the content if not more no pressure! If performance isn't your strong suit, try out some of our tips for reading your poems out loud and get advice on stage fright from other slam poets. Practice with Power Poetry. Submit your Slam Poem in a multimedia form to Power Poetry.
You can also compete in any of the open online poetry slams on Power Poetry's site. Hey There Dehlila. In a desolate bed I lie awake Remembering the good things Time did take Like memories and love and trust that broke Its What makes me happy! You know what makes me happy, I like laughter and people lauging, at funny jokes I tell my friends happily, when life goes Years that Answer.
Practice reading them aloud to smooth out any wrinkles. Also, choose a poem that you think really matters. If you had one message to share with the world, what would you want to say? Find a poem that says that or write one yourself! As an audience member, make sure you show your appreciation for each speaker by clapping or snapping after their performance. Let your MC introduce the next speaker and have the MC wrap up the poetry slam at the end of the event.
Beginning : Start with a topic you are passionate about. If animal cruelty is something you feel strongly about, then write about it. Let what you care about fuel your writing. Often, the things that we care about are deeply personal to us. Slam poems are usually free verse, but they can use line breaks and punctuation for emphasis just like traditional poems.
Practice : Be sure to practice! If you can, practice in front of a mirror so that you can see what you look like as you perform. We all listen and learn in different ways, and these fourth wall-breaking moments can sometimes be as meaningful as the poems themselves.
In that spirit, I wrote this as an introduction to my book so that it could both contextualize my poems and offer an introduction to the form—and culture—of spoken word for anyone who may not already be part of that community. I do not expect every spoken word artist or listener out there to agree with everything I write here.
What follows is more so an illumination of a few pet peeves and misconceptions that I run across all the time. I will, however, share the framework that I use when it comes to terms:. After all, the history in which poetry was primarily about the page is shorter than the history in which poetry was primarily oral see next point. Where does that definition come from? Who benefits from it? Now, this does not mean that I believe that all spoken word is beautiful and perfect and amazing. For every spoken word piece that I love, I can think of another or five that I despise.
Lots of great spoken word artists are published poets, award-winners and professors. Lots of page poets are very good at performing their work. It is one of the oldest artistic practices that we have. The griot, the storyteller, the person responsible for orally passing down information from generation to generation: every culture on earth has some kind of analogue to this. The Iliad and Odyssey were spoken word poems.
But it is important to know that this art has deeper roots, and that those of us who do this are taking part—knowingly or not—in a much older cultural practice.
I understand that for a lot of people, slam poetry is a punchline. After all, a fundamental pillar of the culture is the idea that everyone has a story, and every story matters. People approach spoken word from all walks of life, from all identities, and from a myriad of approaches to the form.
I would say that the culture is largely driven by young people, and young people of color especially, but it is by no means dominated by a singular voice. This leads into the next point:. Another fundamental pillar of spoken word culture is the idea that poetry is for everyone. Anyone can be a poet. Anyone can serve as a judge at a slam. What this means in practice is that no matter who you are, or how much experience or training you have, you can sign up at an open mic or poetry slam and share something.
A lot of spoken word is pretty bad. The spoken word community, however, is intentionally set up in such a way where the great and not-so-great exist in the same spaces. The spoken word community includes icons like Andrea Gibson and Saul Williams, right alongside some year-old kid performing at their very first open mic.
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