Messages

31

General Discussion / Re: Publishing slam poetry?

« on: March 29, 2010, 08:45:36 PM »

rajones hasn't logged back in since the date of his orginal post, so I feel comfortable hijacking this thread and pulling it into a slightly different direction. Two questions.

1. How many slam scenes (show of hands) publish themselves? By which I mean, do you publish a book, chapbook, or CD anthology of your slam team? Of your open mic readers?
Cantab publishes a chapbook each year with 3-4 poems from each member of our slam team. For the past two years, we've recorded an "EP" CD with each team member's "signature" track. I'd love to put together an anthology of our open mic readers, but our open mic comprises over 60 regular readers of varied styles and skill levels. I have no idea how we'd wrangle that down to a cohesive, economically feasible chapbook.

So prepping a poem for a slam and being serious about making it a better poem along that process can raise your publication odds.

-Matt

2. What impact has your participation in slams/ open mics had on your interest in/ ambitions for publishing your work in journals or books?
I used to send stuff to journals, enter newspaper contents, plaster my stuff all over the Web, dream of "making it" as a published poet, but those ambitions have largely died with my involvement in Boston's open mic scene. I can read a poem in front of 100 people at my home venue. How many journals can guarantee 100 people will read my poem?

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General Discussion / Re: Rules for Protesting a Plagiarized Poem in a Slam?

« on: March 25, 2010, 11:08:41 AM »

I think the presence or absence of deceptive intent matters a lot. If you cite the source ("there's a line in this poem about alarm clocks; it's from Jane Jones"), then you're being honest and you're in the clear. When you use lines from the "Gettysburg Address" or Macbeth, it's reasonable to assume nobody is going to mistake those lines for anything you wrote, so that's okay, too.

If you're borrowing without citation, from works which are not universally known* to your audience, and you're hoping to pick up some momentum from those appropriations, then that's a violation.

Parody, which JacobPoet mentioned and which is my stock-in-trade, is covered by that "intent to deceive" rule because there's no upside to my performing a parody poem for an audience unfamiliar with the original.

My most successful parody to date reimagines Maxwell Kessler's "Legend of John Henry in the Big Bend Tunnel" as a showdown between two larger-than-life musicians, ripping lines left and right from all of Max's (many) paeans to heavy metal. I wrote maybe five of the lines in that poem, but I feel comfortable calling it my own, so long as I perform it at the Cantab, where everyone knows the original poem. Max, for his part, isn't plagiarizing "John Henry" so long as he performs it in the US, where people would recognize the underlying story as a folktale they learned in kindergarten. There'd be no intent to deceive. If Max slammed that poem in Australia, he'd be vulnerable to a plagiarism charge if he didn't let people know he was telling them a traditional American folktale (which I'm sure he would do, as Max is a classy guy).

*"Universally known" can be slippery, of course. I suppose it's possible that a slam judge would think Man, I really like the line in that poem about "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." That line was awesome, so I'll score her a 9.5. It could happen, but I wouldn't fault the poet for having faith in her audience.

33

General Discussion / Re: Publishing slam poetry?

« on: March 25, 2010, 10:07:24 AM »

I'll second much of what AmyD said.

I'd venture maybe 5-10% of the poetry given at slams gets published "within slam." By "within slam" I mean that it gets published in chapbooks, on CDs, on poetry podcasts/radio shows, or in poetry books and anthologies largely marketed to and purchased by people who attend poetry readings and slams. Publishing houses such as Write Bloody and the Mark Elveld series are mostly aimed at spoken word/slam afficionados.

If you're asking how much of the poetry given at slams ends up in general-audience poetry journals or books, I'd venture it's a statistically insignificant portion.

34

General Discussion / Poetry Events During/Near South by Southwest?

« on: January 14, 2010, 02:48:23 PM »

I'm probably attending the SXSW festival this year (mid-March, Austin, TX), and would love to check out the local poetry scenes while I'm in town. I'm inquiring as a listener and open-mic reader.

Mr. Mike Henry, sir, I'll be E-mailing you shortly.

I know of Austin Poetry Slam @ Ego's, Austin Neo Soul, and the group piece showcase. Any other poetry events happening in/around Austin that week? Last year, they had a non-profit mission statement poetry slam, which I swear I am not making up:

http://www.sxsw.com/node/1510

Thank you in advance, everybody!

35

General Discussion / Re: What do you think about spoken word in TV commercials?

« on: January 14, 2010, 02:22:03 PM »

Oh, also:

Theodore Seuss Geisel (later known as "Dr. Seuss") spent most of his twenties and thirties illustrating magazine ads for Flit brand insecticide. The crazy bugs and monsters he drew became pop-culture icons during the Great Depression. Flit was a subsidiary of Standard Oil (later known as "Exxon") (later still known as "you fuckers!"). So there's an example of an E.V.I.L. corporation using a poet in their advertising. But I should note that:

1. Standard Oil wasn't asking Geisel to be their spokespoet. They just liked his insect drawings. It would be years before Dr. Seuss published any books.
2. Dr. Seuss would have made a terrible slam poet. Trust me.

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General Discussion / Re: What do you think about spoken word in TV commercials?

« on: January 14, 2010, 02:17:52 PM »

What would happen if a dozen commercials sprung up with poets getting paid to pump product?

Advertising rarely attempts to (re)define what is cool or mainstream. Changing the zeitgeist is very hard even when that's all you're trying to do, and advertising is first and foremost trying to sell us something. The easier way to do that is to ally yourself with what is already cool. I can remember when Ray Charles was wildly popular for a short period in the early 1990's because of his Diet Pepsi "Uh-huh!" ads, but Ray Charles was already a lifetime member of the Coolest People Ever to Walk the Earth Club. That's the image Pepsi was paying to be associated with.

I don't think spoken word will get more popular due to advertising. I think spoken word is trickling into advertising because it's getting a little more popular.

As for the "spokespoet for E.V.I.L." notion:

Patronage of arts and culture has long been a fig-leaf for E.V.I.L., Inc. to atone for its sins. Andrew Carnegie built Carnegie Hall and a zillion libraries... while he paid private, Pinkerton detectives to shoot at striking workers.  The Medici Family lavished money and marketing clout on Michelangelo and Donatello... while stabbing and poisoning rival bankers and merchants.

Would life be better today if the Medici clan had a decent human-rights record and Michelangelo had died an obscure woodcutter, unable to afford those gigantic blocks of pure marble?

For sure: nobody bats a thousand.  I've worked hard to reduce my source and put myself in position to be giving my money to the worst companies as little as possible, and I'm satisfied that my choices put me drastically below what the equivalent of the national average would approximately be.   

I think Jared has the right mix of reality and idealism, here.

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General Discussion / Pact: Open mic at your snowed-in airport

« on: December 23, 2009, 04:01:11 PM »

Those of us flying into/ out of the Midwest this Christmas weekend are probably going to spend a lot of time stuck in airports. It's supposed to be Snowpocalypse out there. I'll be passing through Cleveland, Chicago, and Minneapolis, so I'll be right in the thick of it.

If I'm stuck at an airport for more than two hours, I'm going to organize an open mic then and there, right in the terminal. I encourage any other snow-bound poets to do the same. I will cast a pretty wide net: singers, poets, comics, salespeople with PowerPoint presentations on their laptops, jugglers, etc.

Local TV news reporters always love to do stories of snowed-in, defeated travelers at Christmas. But I'll bet a variety show in an airport would break out of B-roll establishing footage and get its own segment on the news.

Plus, I mean, haven't you always wanted to say "Man, the open mic I hosted in (Chicago/ Milwaukee / Pittsburgh) was so rough, everybody in the joint had to go through a metal detector before we could start the show!" I can't be the only one who wants that kind of thing on his slam resume.

Understand I'm not rooting for terrible weather, delayed flights, and long lines of frustration. I'm just letting you know what I plan to do about it should that come to pass.

This could totally become a movement or something.

Merry Christmas!

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General Discussion / Regional Ride-share boards hosted on these forums?

« on: December 21, 2009, 05:11:53 PM »

So. What if there were standing sections on this forum where poets could work out carpools to poetry shows?

Boston (well, er, Cambridge) has two PSI-certified slams. Cantab and Lizard. Wednesday and Sunday. There are  like a zillion different busses and subways and bike paths that can get you to these places from anywhere in Boston.

But if you live outside of Boston, certainly if you live outside of the I-95 beltway that rings Our Fair City, you might not come see us. We might be missing out on some great voices.

Conversely, there are other certified PSI slam venues kind-of sort-of near Boston: Providence, Worcester, Amherst, Manchester. Plus there are a lot of other slam-friendly venues. Simone and I came up with about a dozen places where a spoken-word poet in Boston might want to cut her teeth.

There are probably Boston poets who would love to get out more, out to those other venues, but they never get to those venues because they don't have a car, or they can't afford the gas, or whatever.

I was about to propose that Cantab implement some sort of ride-share bulletin board, either a physical bulletin board we'd display next to the open mic list, or an HTML/SQL bulletin board we'd keep on our Website. But now I wonder if it should be here on these forums.

We'd split the USA (And Canada) into some regions, maybe do something cool with Google maps.

What do you folks think? Would enough people from enough scenes avail themselves of that kind of service? Would it boost PSI enrollment? Would it add a lot of stupid server traffic? What do you guys do in your communities when a big poetry show rolls in a few towns over from where you live?

39

General Discussion / Third Annual NorthBEAST Regional W&YI Poetry Slam this Weekend (12/4-12/5)

« on: December 03, 2009, 10:40:01 AM »

The NorthBEAST Regional is a competitive poetry event held this year on the campus of Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, NH. Nationally registered slam venues from New England and beyond are invited to compete for bragging rights, poetic glory, and a spot at the 2010 National Poetry Slam.

Come out to watch the fun on Friday, December 4, as poetry teams from all over the northeastern U.S. deliver all the tricks of storytelling, theatre, stand-up comedy, and cold hard poetry to wheedle points from judges selected from the audience.

Then, on Saturday, December 5, feel free to join in at our daytime workshops and open mics to try your hand at performance poetry yourself. Finally, on Saturday night, we’ll present the top eight poets of the weekend, plus wildcard representatives from Cambridge's Lizard Lounge and Lowell's Mill City poetry slams, for a ten-poet battle royale for the NorthBEAST 2009 individual title!

Tickets to both nights' events will be available at the door for $5 per night (with a 2 night pass available on Friday night for $8). Cash only; no credit cards or personal checks. All ages welcome; be advised some poets use colorful language.

This event is co-sponsored by Southern New Hampshire University and The NH Writer's Project and we thank them greatly for all their assistance!

Website: http://www.slamnews.com/northbeast

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General Discussion / Re: The Next Big Thing: WOWps 2010

« on: October 14, 2009, 11:15:30 AM »

I'll come at this discussion from the perspective of a non-slammer who attended two workshops at IWPS this year, and who also organized an unofficial event. I attended the comedy workshop by Mike McGee and Thadra Sherridan, and the performance workshop by Thadra, Ed Mabrey, Daemond Arrindell, Alvin Lau, and Mona Webb. I also organized the limerick slam.

The comedy workshop taught me little that I didn't already know, but it was reassuring to hear that I'm not the only poet grappling with those issues. By the end of the discussion, we'd come up with "warmth" as an understood middle-ground between comedy and tragedy. I'm articulating this poorly, but it was worthwhile to name the elusive beast we were all hunting.

The performance workshop was great. I came in late, sat in the back and watched as some of the biggest names in slam watched and critiqued earnest performances. (In terms of competitors giving workshops and potential conflicts that might arise, let me say that on Friday afternoon I saw Alvin give good, honest advice to a poet who was also hoping to qualify for finals. I thought that was very classy and high-minded.) Ed Mabrey is really good at this stuff. He had spot-on critiques and I came away from that workshop with some ideas and rubrics I'll incorporate into my own performances.

Those were two good workshops led by people with a whole cabinet full of trophies...and there were maybe twelve people at each workshop. Bear in mind the performance workshop had FIVE facilitators, plus Jamei and I got there late, so that's a 1:1 student:teacher ratio with top-drawer talent. Heckuva deal for those of us who bother to show up, but I think it indicates that people aren't interested in showing up.

Which brings me to the issue of "Hey, if you want to have [an event/ workshop], do it yourself." Be very careful how you toss those suggestions around, folks. Putting on your own event concurrently with a PSI festival is not for dilettantes or dabblers. I'm neither, but I got my ass handed to me with the limerick slam. I spent two mornings pounding the pavement in downtown Berkeley, handed out almost 150 flyers, spent $40 on prizes, made announcements from 3 IWPS prelim stages, and I got 1 entrant and 3 audience members. You do the math.

Harlym_1two5 had great success with his underground NUPICS show at NPS 2009, but
a) he's 1two5, a 2008 NPS Finalist with name recognition and plenty of horsepower
b) he started drumming up interest early and
c) he was reinstating a sorely-missed event, not establishing a new event or reading.

I'll take Detroitphoenix and BeverlyWilkinson at their words when they tell me that they considered workshops but decided the community/audience wasn't sufficiently interested. I will point out that men who attend WOWPS can't enter (m)any of the competitions or readings, and so workshops might give male attendees something more to do.

I like workshops, but they need to be official to succeed. I like workshops, but even if they are official, they are likely to succeed only modestly.

The only workshop that got attended was Dee's workshop.  The previous year, we had awesome people taking on great workshop topics who'd actually bought materials and handouts to give to the women and NO ONE, repeat, NO ONE even showed up.  We had a pissed off venue owner who woke up early in the day to let us in for nothing.

If you or anyone else desires workshops, I'll see what I can do about getting free hotel room space for people that can teach on the spot - but it will not officially be apart of our event this year.

If I've learned anything from the last two national PSi events, it's that we are free to organize unofficially if we see the need.

I think it's really early to do this, because few of us have made decisions on even attending, but if there is a workshop you really want, make it happen.

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General Discussion / Re: Limerick Slam at IWPS?

« on: October 10, 2009, 11:22:40 AM »

I just want to officially apologize for messing this event up.  Though it was not my official responsibility, it was a great idea.  We needed to deal with the issue of two teams from the W&In that needed to be resolved, and the Starry Plough was the only practical venue.  We moved the Limerick Slam to the Long Haul and it fizzled when no one walked across the street.  Had it been at the Plough, I'm sure it would have been fun.  Very sorry!

Absolutely no apologies are necessary. You did right by the tournament and by the teams that needed to qualify for NPS 2010. The limerick slam was an underground event and I had every expectation of sitting below the salt here in Berkeley. While I'm disappointed in the outcome, I'm glad I gave it a shot.

Anyway, congratulations to John Staedler, who was our only entrant and who read three limericks to prove his merit and claim his prizes (I gave him all three prizes since my next considered move was to get way too drunk to be able to carry things). Also thank you to Ekabhumi's parents, (Mr. & Mrs. Elik?) who compose the audience for the show and who were awfully good sports about everything. Also, and undoubtedly they've told you this, but they are both very proud of you and this whole festival. Big smiles all around.

It has been a pleasure meeting you folks. I'll see you tonight at UC Berkeley!

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General Discussion / Re: Limerick Slam at IWPS?

« on: October 06, 2009, 02:36:16 PM »

I'll design fliers tomorrow and print them on Wednesday, so at that point the die is cast.

Well. We're in it now. Iambs don't fail me now!

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General Discussion / Re: Limerick Slam at IWPS?

« on: October 05, 2009, 08:23:58 PM »

hey -  just wanna make sure that the original person that proposed and championed the event (stephen meads) is included. The only reason the event changed in the first place was the perceived lack of interest. Basically: we told him to change it cause yall didnt want it - since yall want it, have it but he needs to be included since it was his event in the first place. Cool?

Absolutely. I'm happy to do as much or as little as Stephen wants me to do. I was excited when I saw the limerick slam on the schedule, and bummed when I saw it disappear, and after I'd gotten over myself I wanted to do what I could to bring it back. I'm sorry you guys perceived a lack of interest (should we have RSVP'd for side events?) I will gladly step aside and let Stephen take the reins if he wants them, but one way or another it seems clear we're in for some limerick fun in Berkeley this week.

I'll design fliers tomorrow and print them on Wednesday, so at that point the die is cast. I've asked Pocketwatch Games to "sponsor" the event by providing the $20 computer game I'll offer to the 1st prize winner. If my boss says yes to that, then the Pocketwatch logo will appear on the flier and I'll mention the game on stage. I won't imply any sort of relationship/endorsement etc between PSI, the local slams, or IWPS and Pocketwatch Games. No money will change hands. Pocketwatch Games makes environmentally-themed educational games for the middle-school crowd; you aren't associated with them but even if you were, there is nothing remotely objectionable about them.

Unless I hear differently from any of you, we'll do a limerick slam at Starry Plough on Friday night 5-6. I think we'll only need 30 minutes, tops, for this, but let's give it an hour to allow for gremlins. afmoffa at yahoo! com if anybody wants to talk to me.

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General Discussion / Re: Limerick Slam at IWPS?

« on: October 05, 2009, 03:33:07 PM »

Just want to chime in with Dahled here:  All three venues have a scheduled "Dinner Break" from 5-7pm.  The only exception is the Starry Plough, where the Youth Slam will be held 5-7pm on Thursday.  Otherwise, those venues are available if folks want to organize something.  We're not going to let Joe Beatboxer go up an thrill us with his (lack) of skills for two hours,

Three things:

1. Nobody has even breathed a hint of this, but I want to state anyway that my effort to organize a limerick slam should not in any way be taken as dissatisfaction with anything the Berkeley folks are doing. Ditto for PSI and the organizing efforts of Steve, Deb, and Abbie have been doing. I am in AWE of the program of events you Bay Area folks have lined up, I am super-excited to fly out there and cheer for the NorthBEAST reps.

2. I'm going to host a limerick slam in the Starry Plough on Friday from 5-6PM. I welcome all entrants, all co-hosts, and of course all spectators. If the event falls through for any reason, (venue double-booked, we can't get Joe Beatbox off the stage, etc.) we'll do a "rain-date" in the hotel ballroom that very night starting at 11:30PM. Prizes for first, second, and third. If we don't get enough unbiased spectators for judges, we'll use biased ones. If we don't get enough crowd period, then we'll just do limerick ciphers.

but if the slam family actually puts together an idea that has a responsible organizer, we'd be delighted to see it manifest.

I've been the Cantab publicity intern for nigh-on two years, I've hosted my own reading series in Beverly, MA, hosted New Hampshire's Team Finals for 2009, and I'm the guy who rounded up two homeless people as judges in Madison WI for NPS 2008. I'm a very responsible organizer. (Whenever something goes wrong at the Cantab, Simone tells me I'm responsible.)

3. Rest up, Steve. We'll miss you.

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General Discussion / Re: Limerick Slam at IWPS?

« on: October 04, 2009, 09:26:54 AM »

I E-mailed Nazleah yesterday and told her that we were interested in making use of the hotel's meeting room (or any other facility available) for the limerick slam. I'll keep you posted.