Has anyone up in this biznatch performed in a poetry slam? Ever been to one?

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Odd thing. I've been thinking about slams quite a bit lately (and spoken word culcha in general). Then I see this just now:

At the poetry slam I used to do there was this militant atheist that regularly did pieces involving mad gross fetish-sex between Jesus and the disciples, the Pope and Jesus, Priests and altar boys and Jesus, etc.

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, April 5, 2007 4:29 PM (2 hours ago)

Anyone else have a story about performing or listening at a slam? Big HOOS, got any more experiences like this?

― Wrinklepaws, Thursday, 5 April 2007 23:01 (eighteen years ago)

oh YEAH

― river wolf, Thursday, 5 April 2007 23:03 (eighteen years ago)

i can't wait to get this shit STARTED

― river wolf, Thursday, 5 April 2007 23:03 (eighteen years ago)

I could only find this thru search:
http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=15368

― Wrinklepaws, Thursday, 5 April 2007 23:04 (eighteen years ago)

Not I. I love the poetry slam skits on "Vaudeville Villain" though.

― Oilyrags, Thursday, 5 April 2007 23:05 (eighteen years ago)

I'm guessing Nickalicious has.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 5 April 2007 23:09 (eighteen years ago)

we're not talking about drum circles, you dork

― river wolf, Thursday, 5 April 2007 23:10 (eighteen years ago)

The most memorable thing I've seen was a dude reading really awkward crush poems from a notepad about a girl who was one of his roommates and in the audience. He certainly didn't seem to have practiced saying the stuff aloud before, and OH, the look on her face...she audibly said, "Oh my GAWD" at one point.

Harlod Bloomps on Poetry Slams:
"It is the death of art."

― marmotwolof, Thursday, 5 April 2007 23:12 (eighteen years ago)

that guy for presidetn

― river wolf, Thursday, 5 April 2007 23:14 (eighteen years ago)

there was this guy at school who did slam poetry/wack hip hop rhymes and so my friend harry arranged to go right before him at this reading and i set up my drum sequencer to fire off flurries of 808 congos whenever he spoke into the microphone... and there was some crazy shit on a tv but i don't remember what. and harry just talked about whatever bullshit in an upbeat meter for a minute or two.

needless to say, the dude was upstaged and PISSED! one of my finest moments!

― lfam, Thursday, 5 April 2007 23:34 (eighteen years ago)

there is a total slam poetry CHAMP on ilx, but i will not out him. though i don't think he has made it a secret cuz i learned of this on a thread somewhere.

― scott seward, Thursday, 5 April 2007 23:40 (eighteen years ago)

i know who

― JW, Thursday, 5 April 2007 23:44 (eighteen years ago)

I went to one to see a friend perform. It was cool to see a bunch of really passionately political goth types performing loudly in my squeaky clean college town, but I would never have the nerve.

― Maria, Friday, 6 April 2007 00:06 (eighteen years ago)

Not I. I love the poetry slam skits on "Vaudeville Villain" though.

ha ha. yeah.

There's poetry slams at my school, but instead of "slams" they're more timid young profs who still care interacting awkwardly with students who seem visibly relieved to in a "safe space." some good poems tho.

― negotiable, Friday, 6 April 2007 00:13 (eighteen years ago)

there is a total slam poetry CHAMP on ilx

You must be thinking of jc, the bard of Canby. ;-)

― Aimless, Friday, 6 April 2007 00:14 (eighteen years ago)

I know who too, I think.

I've been to a few. Even when people are good the vibe can be corny though, I'd rather just watch Slam and be done with it.

― Jordan, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:25 (eighteen years ago)

<i>there is a total slam poetry CHAMP on ilx</i>

Oh wait you mean other than Saul Will1ams? :>

― Jordan, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:26 (eighteen years ago)

(jk)

― Jordan, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:26 (eighteen years ago)

tynan delong?

― chaki, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:34 (eighteen years ago)

Dom is technically OTM as I once accompanied a whatever-you-call-someone-who-performs-at-these musically (boring droney synthesizer noises).

― nickalicious, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:34 (eighteen years ago)

there is a new joint that just opened on the island and they have slam nites - the first one was packed apparently and high school kids and old crusty island poets read and it actually sounds like it was fun and maria went and Beth Parker's husband was the host - and you'll never guess what the place is called!!! it's so perfect for a slam coffee joint.

― scott seward, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:35 (eighteen years ago)

go ahead, guess...

― scott seward, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:35 (eighteen years ago)

If they had had poetry slams when I was a teenager that totally would've been the life for me. I was way into waving my hands around like a douche and SAYing things inFLECted AWKwardly.

― nickalicious, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:36 (eighteen years ago)

Scott is it JAVA ASS MOTHERFUCKERS?

― nickalicious, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:37 (eighteen years ago)

no! two more guesses and then i'll tell.

― scott seward, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:38 (eighteen years ago)

hbo's def coffee jam

― chaki, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:38 (eighteen years ago)

the press pot

― nickalicious, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:39 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.coffee-tea.co.uk/caffeine.jpg
?

― nickalicious, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:39 (eighteen years ago)

That's what I would name my coffee shop.

― nickalicious, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:40 (eighteen years ago)

no and no! okay, are you ready?

CHE'S LOUNGE

― scott seward, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:40 (eighteen years ago)

dang, I was going to guess Common Grounds

― Wrinklepaws, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:48 (eighteen years ago)

oh god hahahahahahahaha yes.

yes i have.

― elmo argonaut, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:50 (eighteen years ago)

There's a Common Grounds by CSUN.

― chaki, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:53 (eighteen years ago)

hahaha this thread is waaaay funnier than it has any right to be

― rrrobyn, Friday, 6 April 2007 01:59 (eighteen years ago)

there's a Che's Lounge in Tucson. Its a bar where bands sometimes play.

― g®▲Ðұ, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:03 (eighteen years ago)

MY OPEN FACED LETTER TO CHARLES BUKOWSKI JACK KEROUAC
MY CIGARETTE
BURNS
I HAVE DRANK TOO
MUCH WHISKEY
TONIGHT, I STARE AT YOUR PORTRAIT
CHARLES BUKOWSKI JACK KEROUAC
WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY
WHY WHY
WHY
WHY
WHERE WAS YOUR MUSE
WHERE WAS YOUR MUSE
IT WAS IN HERE
NOT IN THE BOTTLE
IT WAS IN HERE
NOT IN THIS ASHTRAY
IT WAS IN HERE
IN HERE
IN HERE
IN HERE
IN HERE

― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:08 (eighteen years ago)

Dud, in other words.

― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:08 (eighteen years ago)

So I guess I'm a little late to this thread, but...

I was involved in the National Circuit for a year. I competed, qualified, and eventually earned a spot on Team San Antonio, with whom I would compete at Nationals in Albuquerque NM in 2005. With our combination of individual and team pieces we ended up ranked 23rd/90.

It was an incredible time of my life and I'd never trade it for anything. I've got stories out the ass if you guys really wanna hear 'em, but any and all tellings from that period would need to be prefaced with a disclaimer along the following lines: I'm not proud of about 85% of what I wrote while inside the slam scene. It was didactic, over the top and ridiculous, the kind of writing that scene tends to breed. But it was a hell of a time.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:17 (eighteen years ago)

oh, hoosteenpaws.

― g®▲Ðұ, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:20 (eighteen years ago)

i've read at a reading where a guy with a sideways tilted baseball cap who probably had a few energy drinks in him walked through the audience and made dramatic poses as he read/YELLED. does that count?

― iiiijjjj, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:22 (eighteen years ago)

i guess if you feel like you have been slammed, it's probably a slam

― iiiijjjj, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:23 (eighteen years ago)

I'm not opposed to poetry slams as I think they can be fun, but I have a lot against slam poetry, if that makes sense.

The summer after my graduation, the National Poetry Slam came through Providence, and seeing as the friends I knew through local readings were volunteering, I signed up to work the door and score bouts and such. It was really depressing to see how so many teams from cities across the country had adopted the same SLAM POETRY ethos, subject matter, and format.

YUR EROTIC POEUM WAS SOOOO SEXY ME AND MY DRUNK GIRLFRENDS WILL GIVE IT A TEN and mabee suk yr dick later? UH

― elmo argonaut, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:26 (eighteen years ago)

^graduation from high school, i mean

― elmo argonaut, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:26 (eighteen years ago)

It was really depressing to see how so many teams from cities across the country had adopted the same SLAM POETRY ethos, subject matter, and format.

This is otm. As someone who was once in the scene, I can attest to the fact that very very very few are A)aware of their sameness B)willing to do anything to change it. Among the most cynical, like the calculating dudes in Team Houston, they're aware of the sameness and focus on being the best Archetypical Melodramatic Slammers as possible so that they can get the points and win the competitions. Originality and artisitic accomplishment becomes secondary to winning.

All too few are guys like Phil West, my Team SA Coach & the co-Director of NPS 06/07, both here in Austin. He's acutely aware of the Slam Box, and all throughout his time as my coach he worked to push me and my team to do original work. That 15% of Slam work that I'm proud of was done with him at my back.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:36 (eighteen years ago)

hur hur no homo etc

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:37 (eighteen years ago)

DO SPORTS SLAMS COUNT? CUZ I DO THOSE LIKE THREE TIMES A DAY, BIATCHES.

I ALSO SLAM COFFEE IN THE MORNINGS, BUT NOT DOORS

― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:38 (eighteen years ago)

JIM MORRISON SUCKS. HAHA LOOK SEE WHAT I DID THER?

― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:39 (eighteen years ago)

how would you guys design your poetry slam team uniforms? i think i would go for like university golf team attire but with the polo shirts embroidered with little scrolls.

― iiiijjjj, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:41 (eighteen years ago)

Other slam related notes:

*met s4ge fr4ncis multiple times

*brought a guy from high school to his first poetry reading who went on to get really into slam and was on def poetry jam

― elmo argonaut, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:43 (eighteen years ago)

how are jams related to slams

― iiiijjjj, Friday, 6 April 2007 02:47 (eighteen years ago)

Skipping 9 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I used to watch Def Poetry Jam until most of the performances were basically just a cappella raps. (Or maybe that's what slams are like and I didn't know any better)

― milo z, Friday, 6 April 2007 03:32 (eighteen years ago)

elmo, we've probably been in the same room many many times.

*brought a guy from high school to his first poetry reading who went on to get really into slam and was on def poetry jam

eamon?

jared was trying to get me to try out for team providence this year.

I once slammed in a maximum security prison in tennesse. there is a video.

― Edward III, Friday, 6 April 2007 04:08 (eighteen years ago)

incidentally the providence grand slam was tonight.

― Edward III, Friday, 6 April 2007 04:10 (eighteen years ago)

WAHT...IS...IT...MADE?????

http://academic.udayton.edu/english/LitFest/images/Poetry_Slam.jpg

― scott seward, Friday, 6 April 2007 04:14 (eighteen years ago)

omg scott otm

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 6 April 2007 04:15 (eighteen years ago)

I have such conflicted + ambivalent feelings about the slam scene. and about poetry in general. when it's good it's very very good and when it's bad it's awful.

― Edward III, Friday, 6 April 2007 04:31 (eighteen years ago)

Ed, it was c4rlos g0mez I brought to a reading, he has since moved to new york and is part of the nuy0rican team I think?

Also way OTM about poetry ambivalence, quality is really rare.

― elmo argonaut, Friday, 6 April 2007 04:39 (eighteen years ago)

During my year in the scene I saw a lot of incredible performances and I heard a handful of genuinely moving and well-crafted poems. But when you're on the circuit, getting the same themes thrown at you again and again at slam after slam, you get more than a little cynical: "Oh, she's doing a Momma Was A Crackhead piece, FUCK that's gonna kill the judges...what do I have that can beat that? Should I try to bring the energy back into the room by going big and funny or should I try to out-devastate her by doing my I Was Born Premature And Shouldn't Be Alive But I Triumphed piece?"

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 6 April 2007 04:41 (eighteen years ago)

performing at a slam would be like attending a competitive AA meeting. if i showed up at that i might have to tell everybody my name and admit that i have a writing problem. i can't imagine getting scored too. just my own personal whatever.
m.

― msp, Friday, 6 April 2007 05:44 (eighteen years ago)

poetry slam got it start at one of my favorite bars in the world: The Green Mill- Chicago's oldest.

― g®▲Ðұ, Friday, 6 April 2007 06:11 (eighteen years ago)

Hell no. Although a good friend of mine took 2nd place in nationals once.

― Ms Misery, Friday, 6 April 2007 13:05 (eighteen years ago)

haha grady i lived around the corner from that joint, that's why i started going there. slam founder marc smith always predicted that i was gonna get my ass kicked in slams and head-to-head haiku bouts, he was usually wrong

― Dimension 5ive, Friday, 6 April 2007 13:21 (eighteen years ago)

I was on the team in Seattle in the '90's - the chick who ALWAYS won had a poem about incest/child abuse that was constructed in a Dr. Seuss rhyme scheme.
I got tired of hearing it after the, like, fifth time. But...it was definitely a crowd favorite.

― aimurchie, Friday, 6 April 2007 15:06 (eighteen years ago)

green mill rulz

― Jordan, Friday, 6 April 2007 15:15 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD8EXIIxiRM

― latebloomer, Saturday, 7 April 2007 21:43 (eighteen years ago)

WAS THE COFFEE SHOP FRESH JIVE

http://myspace-033.vo.llnwd.net/00632/33/04/632544033_l.jpg

― strgn, Saturday, 7 April 2007 21:54 (eighteen years ago)

Maybe now is the time for me to ask jaymc why he hates nosaj suttep.

― Pleasant Plains, Saturday, 7 April 2007 23:16 (eighteen years ago)

Hell no. Although a good friend of mine took 2nd place in nationals once.

-- Ms Misery, Friday, April 6, 2007 8:05 AM

Who dat?

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 7 April 2007 23:19 (eighteen years ago)

B. Parker's husband to me in an e-mail:
"Me, the Slam host? I think I'll pass. But, my name WAS on the poster. And because of that, I had an interesting exchange with the older guy in the Slam who looked kind of beatnik, and also beat-up, that kind of anemic and sunless comlexion that suggests you might not have eaten well for the past 20 years. He called me up after the slam to air some mild (and not so mild) complaints. It would be funny if I hadn't ended up wsanting to punch him. He gave me the feeling that he thought he should have won, and that [the winner] didn't deserve to win because he hadn't memorized his poem... AND, he actually said to me, "You people might think the Slam was a big success, and I appreciate all the work you put into it and all.. but I actually felt like I was raped..."

― Maria :D, Sunday, 8 April 2007 22:38 (eighteen years ago)

ahh to be raped by maggie estep..i think slam poetry ids funny and i kinda mock it sumtymes..we had k8 hardy do sum street verse before our setlast summer and she was awesome byut thren agauin she is awesome..there is a open mic every wed shere in huddson and th host likes to do lots of odes to her doldo collection..but at least it gets people out and laffing and having discuusions and stuff..
YOurr eyex
on my prizxse
feel the stares
as we walk down th street
all jealous
and fresh faced
our peculiar
mixedc
race
your eyes
fantazixe
howe it would be if we were free
andf left to be
harder and cold
buit oh so bold
twisted
sistered
fisytered
black

― danbunny, Sunday, 8 April 2007 22:55 (eighteen years ago)

“…of course, now it's all gone to hell. I can't bear these accounts I read in the Times and elsewhere of
these poetry slams, in which various young men and women in various late-spots are declaiming rant and
nonsense at each other. The whole thing is judged by an applause meter which is actually not there,
but might as well be. This isn't even silly; it is the death of art.”
--Harold Bloom

That's the fuller quote, which originally ran in an interview with Paris Review. I can't find the original online.

― fife, Sunday, 8 April 2007 23:59 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know how Howard Bloom can complain about dead art, given his criticism is all basically a rapturous autopsy of "THE CANON". Bah.

― elmo argonaut, Monday, 9 April 2007 00:09 (eighteen years ago)

I don't even like "real" poetry reaidngs.

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 9 April 2007 00:24 (eighteen years ago)

Hey, do you slam refugees know a dude from DC named P4trick W4shington aka Bl4ck P1cass0? He's the other MC in my brother's group; both of them have been on Def Poetry multiple times.

― HI DERE, Monday, 9 April 2007 00:29 (eighteen years ago)

In the terminology
Of the love soaked saints
Everybody is a poetry slam
Every holey body needs a poetry bam bam
From my tubular tube ham
Tumescent o yes maam
In the terminology
Of the love soaked
saints

― Cassius Wiener, Monday, 9 April 2007 01:11 (eighteen years ago)

I had a coffee shop named Common Ground in college!

― JW, Monday, 9 April 2007 05:22 (eighteen years ago)

Never met Black P; my contacts were older dudes like DJ Hurricane, Patricia Smith, Aaron Yamaguchi, Taylor Mali (an arrogant sumbitch whom everyone disliked), Russell Garcia the night in Portland where he challenged everybody in the place to a rumble, and etc. I once gave Carl Hancock Rux my beer after he came late to an Asheville bar and missed closing time, and I was an emcee for the semifinals in Ann Arbor so I introduced like everybody big. Also, once ran into Reg E. Gaines here in town at a slam where I was the only person who really knew who he was. Talk about killin' the room, it was like My Lai.

― Dimension 5ive, Monday, 9 April 2007 05:42 (eighteen years ago)

LOL yes Taylor Mali is a stupendous prick

― elmo argonaut, Monday, 9 April 2007 14:52 (eighteen years ago)

My sister is in some local group / attends a local night pretty regularly. The first few she went too she cleaned up; I don't think she was ever really lower than second place when they were doing scores. She's great at it, but I always have the inclination to say that her acting background (again, local) helps a hell of a lot when facing off against the angsty, insular poet types.

I like seeing poetry slams when people are good, but if I go too often it gets tiring because personality is such a large part of it. Anyone who's successful isn't going to be switching up their style completely, and it's definitely a persona thing. But if I ever want to see sex & drugs insect metaphor guy, strong yet emotionally bruised from experience girl, and whimsical academic poet guy, I know where to go.

― mh, Monday, 9 April 2007 18:07 (eighteen years ago)

haha indeed xpost

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 9 April 2007 21:18 (eighteen years ago)

All praises due to the Black Man
All praises due to the Creator
All praises due to the son, and the son's son
All praises due to the doctrine

All praises due to the leader
All praises due to the organization
All praises due to the value system, the indestructible Nguzo Saba
Seven is one, one is seven

All praises due to the advocates of Kawaita
All praises due to the Black Man
All praises due to the Creator, to the son, and the son's son, to the doctrine, to the leader, to the organization, to the value system, to the Nguzo Saba, the advocates of Kawaita
All praises due to the black man

― Wrinklepaws, Thursday, 12 April 2007 00:36 (eighteen years ago)

http://myspace-033.vo.llnwd.net/00632/33/04/632544033_l.jpg

― strgn, Thursday, 12 April 2007 00:57 (eighteen years ago)

revolution.

xpost

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 12 April 2007 01:19 (eighteen years ago)

hey son, strongo, step off the dick
this isn't WDYLL
the passage above is from an Amiri Baraka jawn (meant to mention that)

― Wrinklepaws, Thursday, 12 April 2007 02:00 (eighteen years ago)

― lfam, Thursday, 12 April 2007 02:15 (eighteen years ago)

also i think he might have been talking about deli meats

― lfam, Thursday, 12 April 2007 02:15 (eighteen years ago)

you might consider putting Time Magazine 2006 Man of the Year on your curriculum vitae

― Wrinklepaws, Thursday, 12 April 2007 02:21 (eighteen years ago)

landed me an externship

― Wrinklepaws, Thursday, 12 April 2007 02:21 (eighteen years ago)

two years pass...

So this was the guy:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/06/02/arts/Poespan.jpg

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 2 June 2009 22:59 (sixteen years ago)

'that's my slam face'

― cant go with u too many alfbrees (Abbott), Tuesday, 2 June 2009 22:59 (sixteen years ago)

so what

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 3 June 2009 00:33 (sixteen years ago)

would slam

― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Wednesday, 3 June 2009 02:16 (sixteen years ago)

I really enjoy reading dude.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 3 June 2009 05:29 (sixteen years ago)

God I just went to his website, he looks so old now.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 3 June 2009 05:30 (sixteen years ago)

lmao @ wrinklepaws

― let free dom ring (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 3 June 2009 05:31 (sixteen years ago)

ten months pass...

WAHT...IS...IT...MADE?????

― scott seward, Friday, April 6, 2007 4:14 AM (2 years ago)

classic post

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 3 April 2010 05:36 (fifteen years ago)

five months pass...

^ what he said

― friends don't understand us, adults don't understand us (zorn_bond.mp3), Tuesday, 14 September 2010 05:55 (fourteen years ago)

"Odd thing." -- Chad Wrinklepaws, 2007

― max, Tuesday, 14 September 2010 06:04 (fourteen years ago)

Not I. I love the poetry slam skits on "Vaudeville Villain" though.

― Oilyrags, Thursday, April 5, 2007 4:05 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 14 September 2010 06:13 (fourteen years ago)

hey son, strongo, step off the dick
this isn't WDYLL

― Wrinklepaws, Thursday, April 12, 2007 3:00 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark

― friends don't understand us, adults don't understand us (zorn_bond.mp3), Tuesday, 14 September 2010 06:31 (fourteen years ago)

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