Vancouver Poetry Slam can’t be beat

Posted by admin on Oct 6, 2009 in Arts & Culture | 1 comment

A man in plaid takes the stage and coughs nervously into the mike while the crowd quiets. Every seat is full and a group is gathered outside the window, passerbyes and those who can’t afford the $5 admission price. They aren’t here for the beer or conversation; they come to hear the poetry of strangers. No-holds-barred poetry. Beat-box into the mike poetry. Slam poetry.

What exactly is a poetry slam? It is a competition in which a poet must perform a poem of their own creation, in any style, within three minutes without the aid of props or music. Five randomly selected audience members will become judges and are given score cards to score the poet from zero to ten. The poets with the highest scores after two rounds of poems are the winners of cash prizes.

The slam poetry movement was started by a construction worker named Marc Smith in Chicago in 1984. After gathering performers and increasing audiences for six years, the first National Poetry Slam took place in San Francisco in 1990.  At that slam there were teams from Chicago and San Francisco, and one lone poet from New York.  Small beginnings.

These days, there are over 80 certified teams in North America and the scene is booming all over the world.  This burst of personal expression is finding not only a genre but also a sense of community. 

In Vancouver, the poetry slam started in 1995 when James P. McAuliffe and Graham Olds started a slam at the Grind Gallery.  It has bounced around but found a home in 2000 at the Café Deux Soleils. The slam has grown from a sparsely attended monthly event to a weekly sold-out gig.

I recently interviewed the current international Slam Master for Vancouver, Duncan Shields, about the VanSlam and what slam poetry means to him. Lean in and listen up to what Vancouver’s finest slam poet has to say on the subject.

HJ: Why did you start the VanSlam?
DS: There is a tremendously large number of creative people in Vancouver.  We recognized a need for more spoken word in Vancouver and the slam was a perfect vehicle to make that happen. 
HJ:  What do you think the role of poetry is?
DS: Well, the roles of poetry and Poetry Slam are two different things. 
To boil it down to a sentence, the role of poetry is to use language to surpass language.
Poetry Slam’s origins lie in outrage and the voice of the underdog.  Marc Smith was a labourer.  His day job was construction.  He wasn’t speaking from the viewpoint of an ivy-league freshman.  He picked the judges at random from the audience so there wasn’t a permanent panel of judges the poets would look up to, get to know, and try to please by tailoring their work to the judges’ specific tastes.  No ‘experts.’  It was judged by the people, spoken for the people, and by keeping the judge selection random and shifting, the poets had no idea what each night was going to be like.
HJ:  What is Vancouver’s poetry scene like compared to other cities in North America?
There are a couple of ways to compare our scenes with others.  Subject matter is one of them.  Success in terms of numbers is another. 
The Vancouver slam reflects the city’s short attention span by going in cycles, seeming to favour whimsy one season, politics the year after that and then tragedy the next. 
As far as numbers, we’re envied for our constantly sold-out venues.  A lot of cities consider their slams a success if they get forty people out to a show.  Poets want to come here because they know they’ll be speaking to large room full of people.
HJ: What do you think is the future of the VanSlam?
DS: The future lies with new blood.  The more faces we get on the VanSlam stage, the more varied and strong we will be.  The Youth Slam, for instance, pulls in lots of teens and hopefully gives them a habit of self-expression and builds a new crop of poets.  Anyone who thinks they have good work but is scared of performing needs to come down and give it a shot.  It’s a supportive environment and we’ve all been there.  Express yourself. 

The Vancouver poetry slam takes place every Monday at Café Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive). See http://vancouverpoetryhouse.com/vanslam/ for more details.