so last week i met this guy, blah blah blah, anyway he's a slam poet. and he was reading some of his work, which i think is so-so, but then he proceeded to tell me all about the slam poetry sub culture, and how clever and smart some of the artists are.

so i'm wondering if anyone here is into slam poetry or has any recomendations of good poets to get a newbie into the whole field?

it's not 'pure' slam, it's a 'choreopoem', but it's roots are in a similar place - for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf by ntozake shange.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/147

this is one of her poems:

you are sucha fool

you are sucha fool/ i haveta love you
you decide to give me a poem/ intent on it/ actually
you pull/ kiss me from 125th to 72nd street/ on
the east side/ no less
you are sucha fool/ you gonna give me/ the poet/
the poem
insistin on proletarian images/ we buy okra/
3 lbs for $1/ & a pair of 98 cent shoes
we kiss
we wrestle
you make sure at east 110 street/ we have cognac
no beer all day
you are sucha fool/ you fall over my day like
a wash of azure

you take my tongue outta my mouth/
make me say foolish things
you take my tongue outta my mouth/ lay it on yr skin
like the dew between my legs
on this the first day of silver balloons
& lil girl's braids undone
friendly savage skulls on bikes/ wish me good-day
you speak spanish like a german & ask puerto rican
market men on lexington if they are foreigners

oh you are sucha fool/ i cant help but love you
maybe it was something in the air
our memories
our first walk
our first...
yes/ alla that

where you poured wine down my throat in rooms
poets i dreamed abt seduced sound & made history/
you make me feel like a cheetah
a gazelle/ something fast & beautiful
you make me remember my animal sounds/
so while i am an antelope
ocelot & serpent speaking in tongues
my body loosens for/ you

you decide to give me the poem
you wet yr fingers/ lay it to my lips
that i might write some more abt you/
how you come into me
the way the blues jumps outta b.b.king/ how
david murray assaults a moon & takes her home/
like dyanne harvey invades the wind

oh you/ you are sucha fool/
you want me to write some more abt you
how you come into me like a rollercoaster in a
dip that swings
leaving me shattered/ glistening/ rich/ screeching
& fully clothed

you set me up to fall into yr dreams
like the sub-saharan animal i am/ in all this heat
wanting to be still
to be still with you
in the shadows
all those buildings
all those people/ celebrating/ sunlight & love/ you

you are sucha fool/ you spend all day piling up images
locations/ morsels of daydreams/ to give me a poem

just smile/ i'll get it

__________________

slam poets are benders.

^ i love suheir hammad!

i really enjoy slam poetry, even though i'm not a poet myself.

the only poets i'm familiar with are the ones featured on def poetry jam though. i like sarah kay, and this other guy named asia (i think that's his name).

at school, the black students union frequently puts on poetry slams. and the english/creative writing grad students here do spoken word at the local bookstores. several of the poems were very, very good.

i don't have many recommendations, but i would tell you to just go to a random poetry slam event and listen. there will almost always be a few poems that you'll like.

jeffrey mcdaniel is. i really like his poem the quiet world in written form but hearing him perform it COMPLETELY ruined it. i've seen a few slam poets before. it was really interesting and enjoyable.

miguel pinero.

definitely a film worth watching.

Parts of that were really powerful. I want to hear more now.

Just read this it is beautiful. Did he do something specific in the performance to ruin it?

he said it in a joking way, if i remember correctly. i've always really loved that poem so to hear the audiene laughing at it, it bothered me. i guess cause in reading it you don't see the humour. but maybe i just take these things too seriously! it's probably still on his myspace page.

I have never heard of slam poetry before

Thanks so much for posting that! I love Suheir, her delivery is so intense, so raw. Definitely one of my favourite slams. I also like Scott Woods, Cristin O'Keefe, Wallace Stevens, Taylor Mali, Peter Nevland, ...

If you're into slam or dub poetry, I recommend you check out the "hip-hop" artist Sage Francis. The lyrical stylings are very similar.

Check out this clip, Taylor Mali performing "What Do Teachers Really Make?". So powerful.

YouTube - Rives Kite

they won't let you embed it, but, it's so cute.
let it get to the end.

I didn't know that style of poetry was called "slam", but I really enjoy it. I have heard so many poems read this way and I really think it makes the words even more powerful and impacting.

YouTube - Beau Sia - Def Poetry Jam

hello beau sia

i think beau sia is crappy.

but this man... i have such a brain-crush on him. i want to steal his mind.

watch it:

http://www.shopliftwindchimes.com/videos/ted.mov

(holy shit)

suheir is lovely, and makes me want to write again.

this is one of the best i've seen on def poetry:

his flow is not amazing, but this spoke to me (more 5 years ago than now, but still good). goosebumps and stuff.