But Most of All, Socrates Hated Poets
In 1984, an actor and writer by the name of Marc Smith is credited with jump-starting what is known today as the Poetry Slam.
Let’s lay some groundwork before I tell you what a gem of a poetic underground your city is, my friend. A poetry slam is an open competition typically composed of fast-paced, non-conventional poetry. Competitors sign up on a list and are placed in random order. They come up on stage and perform a piece in three minutes or less, with certain numbers of points deducted for time violations. Five judges are randomly chosen at the start, and they give the poet a score between one and ten. The highest and lowest scores are dropped, giving the poet a score out of 30. There are two to three rounds in normal slams, and – obviously – the highest score wins.
But rules, shmules. Let’s talk about our city, shall we?
Many of the famous ’slam’ (or performance) poets come from hipster capitals, like Seattle, Portland, or Bellingham. So what say we of Spokane? And how? And won’t it, doesn’t it, shock the world?
Yes.
National slam champion Buddy Wakefield commented upon his first Spokane visit, “These guys are doing something different than everyone else.”
It’s a hard time to be a slam poet; it’s an even harder time to be revolutionary about it. Local Spokane poets Kurt Olson, Mark Anderson, and Zack Graham recently made their way down to Berkeley, CA for the 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam, one of two of the United States’ national poetry competitions.
All three returned with frustration between their toes. “The world isn’t ready for new poetry,” Olson says.
Anderson, having competed in 2008 as well, says, “This year it was as though we weren’t being heard. The audience wasn’t even listening.”
Because Spokane is different.
Check out this team piece by Olson, Anderson, and Graham. Since then they, along with myself, have collaborated to write an additional team piece and two duets, pieces specifically dedicated to performance rather than competition, since Spokane does not allow team competition.
Bellingham poet Ryler Dustin writes, in his recently published book Heavy Lead Birdsong:
“But I am at my desk with the candle burning. I am at the bookstore trying to buy faith. I’m in my classroom writing poetry while not paying attention in poetry class. These are my abilities.”
Dustin is an inspiration and a friend to Spokane, and we are, my friends, what he writes. We are not what the masses want to hear. But we want to change them. We want to tell them secrets that they know.
So help us. We are being and becoming. We need everyone.
Competitions are held the second Thursday of every month at Empyrean Coffee House. There is a $5 cover charge.
But almost more importantly, an open mic is held every Wednesday night at Empyrean Coffee House. It is free and enormously welcoming. We want everything. All poetry, slam or otherwise. It is called – often accurately so – the Empyrean Broken Mic Poetry Night.
In Book 3 of Plato’s Republic, Socrates advocates that the poets should be banned from their own work; there must be a code of censorship by which they would abide.
But where would humanity be without the power to speak?
Come and change us.
See you Wednesday. And Thursday.
Danielle Estelle is an enthusiastic and regular slam poet at the Empyrean.
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