Rap vs. Slam Poetry

Another work of art that relates to Slam Poetry is the music genre of rap. You could easily argue that slam and rap are nearly the same thing. Both consist of words spoken in a rhythmic manner that let out the emotions or opinions of the speaker. They are also both written to be preformed for a live audience. Slam poems though, differ from rap music. First of all, slam poems can be seen more as a form of literature than rap can. It is accepted by teachers, and older members of society. It is clear that the words of Slam Poems have great meaning to them. When rap is heard by the older folks, they usually want it turned off immediately. This is most likely because of the stereotypes associated with rap music in both how rap is seen, (sex and violence), and how the rapper himself looks (“badass” gangster, who doesn't live by the rules). Slam poetry contests also do not allow music. Rap always has some sort of background beat, where as slam poems they have nothing but the sound of their voice. Slam Poetry can attract a larger fan base as well. Both the rap music fans, and the people more fond of poetry and literature will be able to appreciate this type of art.

Slam by Me

Fragile Glass Wall

Let's talk about women.
I know everyone's got them on their minds,
I know we all got them in our hearts,
And if you are a woman,
you got it all over the place.
Now I'm not saying just any old girl.
Not just that woman you saw,
Strolling the sidewalk,
Running and sweating,
Her i pod headphone wires danging,
bouncing along with her.
No, not her.
The one you saw at the hardware store,
The one with the blond hair
Up in pig tails,
Soft white skin shimmering
in the glow from the lighting department.
The one that you might as well
Put a lollipop in her mouth
Just because it seemed it belonged there
The one you might as well put a wall up in front of
with a sign that reads,
“You can look, but don't you dare touch.”
But you know in reality that even looking
will get you in just as much trouble.
But if somehow you do manage to break through.
Slam, shatter and just destroy that glass wall,
You know you'll be able to see her vicious grin
reflected up at you in every single piece.
So men,
be sure to have your broom and dustpan ready,
So you can clean up any mess that you might make.

Explaination:
For my created piece of art, I have decided to come up with my own slam poem. Doing this was an easy task, as Slam Poetry is really just saying what's in your head. Of course I didn't just write it and it was done, I needed to tweak it a bit here and there, but essentially that's all there was to it. It was actually pretty fun. I don't think I'll be preforming it on stage anything soon though. Simply my poem is saying that guys these days always go for the girls they know they can't have, the ones who are simply out of their league. They ignore the “normal” girls, and spend their time drooling over the super models. In reality though, these goddesses aren't even right for them. They may be snobby, or selfish, or just plain rude. From a distance though, the girls are just works of art to the men and that's ll they see. Then before they know it, they can be stuck in a horrible relationship regretting their decision. The work could be described as a Slam Poem because I have taken something from society, and took a little stab at it, let my opinion about it out there. I tried placing the lines so that you might be able to get a feeling from it by just reading it, rather than it being preformed. (I don't think I have the voice for that.) I hope you enjoy it. :]

History of The Slam

The poetry slam movement began in the 1990s, as a way to emphasize the “spoken and preformed aspects” (poets.org) of poetry. The subject matter of the poems can be almost anything, as stated before, but the most popular of topics are “racial, economic, and gender injustices as well as current events…” (poets.org). The actual “poetry slam” is a competition where poets perform their work out loud to an audience. Most slam poems were written to be preformed in this way, and may not get the same applause if read from paper.

The first poetry slam was in 1986 by a poet named Marc Smith in Chicago . Smith “was looking for a way to breathe life into the open mike poetry format.” (slampapi.com) The city soon heard of the weekly slam competitions, and soon a majority of the country knew about it. In the Get Me High Lounge, there were not too many rules, and the poets were free to express themselves. The competition has now gotten so big that there is actually a National Poetry Slam every year, attracting competitors from both Europe and the Americas .

Slam poetry competitions attract a diversity of people, both male and female, to perform. Most slam poets are usually young aspiring poets just beginning their career. Even though certain critics found slam poetry to be “flawed” (poetry.org) it did not stop poets from following the movement.

Sources:

Poetry.org
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5672

Slampapi.com
http://www.slampapi.com/new_site/background.htm

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_slam

"What Teachers Make"

The poem I will be analyzing is “What Teachers Make” a slam poem by Taylor Mali. A good place to start is right at the beginning, perhaps before the actual beginning, at the title. The title of this poem is somewhat interesting as there is not actually a title, but three titles. The webpage where the poem is posted reads as the title, “What Teachers Make or Objection Overruled or If Things Don’t Work Out, You Can Always Go to Law School.” I think this is sort of a way to say a title doesn’t really matter in a slam poem, as long as it has one. The main title though, is “What Teachers Make.” Hearing this, the reader (or listener) would think the poem is probably about how much money teachers earn in a paycheck, (which is exactly what Mali wants you to think.) That is the original meaning of the phrase within the poem as well, but as a key point of the poem he transforms this into another meaning. He says teachers “make a goddamn difference.”

The poem begins by placing you into a dinner conversation where an unnamed person begins with, “What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?” The narrator of the poem, he himself a teacher, feeling insulted, decides to “bite [his] tongue.” The man from before asks the narrator, “What do you make?” At this point the narrator goes on a sort of mental rant, where says, in reference to the question, “…if you ask for it, I have to let you have it.” He lists the things that he “makes.” “I make kids wonder, I make them question. I make them criticize. I make them apologize and mean it. I make them write, write, write. And then I make them read.” This is only a portion of the things he claims to “make.” In the end, almost as a summary to his list he says, “I make a goddamn difference! What about you?”

The tone of Mali’s poem is powerful and angry but at the same time, proud. In the beginning you can sense a sort of tension rising within the narrator. He is at a dinner, a relaxing environment, until someone insults his job choice. He suddenly becomes angry, but only in his mind, “Because we’re eating, after all, and this is polite company.” Suddenly the voice becomes rushed though after being asked “What do you make?” This is where the shift occurs. The remaining portion of the poem is loud and fast, even from reading it you can feel the emotion in the voice of the narrator. Even though he is angry though, he knows what he does is good, contrary to the other man’s beliefs about teachers. He knows that without him the world would be nowhere, children would be uneducated, regardless of how much money he makes.

Reading Reflection

I’ve finished reading a selection of slam poems, and I feel like I’m really beginning to understand the style. All of these poems are filled with emotion, no matter the subjects. These subjects range from the deliciousness of cheese, to the pay of a school teacher. So, there really is no limit for what you can talk about, as long as you mean what you’re saying. When the poets speak, their voices change tone, and tempo throughout the reading. The audience reacts to specific lines by letting out hoots and yells when the poet says something that they feel. This also seems to be another meaning of slam poetry, to get the audience to react. Slam poetry is written for competitions, if you don’t have the audience on your side you probably won’t win.

The syntax and diction for slam poetry is conversational for the most part. In fact, I think without the speaker’s voice involved it could almost be read as prose. When it is written out though, line breaks have sometimes been added, which help to add the effect of how the speaker says it. Other times it was just written out in a large paragraph. In videos the emotion comes out more clearly. You can hear the poet’s voice get louder, or faster, or slower, or more comical sounding or more dark sounding…the list goes on. A lot of times the voice speeds up into a crescendo until finally reaching that big line, which also gets the audiences biggest reaction. Though these poets are competing, most care more about getting their poetry out than actually winning the competition.

The Search Continues

I've managed to find three more slam poems to read. Which is a difficult task. Not to find slam poetry, but to find written slam poetry. Slam poetry is read in competitions, not written down and looked over. The tone of voice, speed of voice and body language are key in the presentation of slam poetry. They add more emotion to the poem than you could get from simply reading it. Even so, I managed to find these slam poems:

Sting - Bleedinout
What Teachers Make - Taylor Mali
Scratch and Dent Dreams - Eric Darby

Alright, I've wasted most of this class googling about fifty different keywords, and have found nothing else. Everything is either in video, or audio form. Of course, these are inaccessible in school, so once I get home I'll put some of those up on here.

Slam Poems

Slam poems I've read so far:

Pucker - Ritah Parrish
The Wussy Boy Manifesto - Big Poppa E
America (It's Gotta Be the Cheese) - Eitan Kadosh
I Wore A Coin in My Shoe When We Got Married - Sou MacMillan
The Edge Is Where I Want To Be - Lisa Martinovic

So far, I've realized these poems have a great variety to them. From romantic, to comedic, to somewhat disturbing. They all have one thing in common though, they express emotions or feelings about certain subjects. What might normally be inner thoughts or beliefs are let out. Which is appropriate since slam poems were meant to be read on stage, for audiences to hear.

The poems are pretty entertaining. I especially like "The Wussy Boy Manifesto." It literally had me laughing out loud, and nudging Meghan at the computer next to me, saying "Read this right here." Google it, it's pretty good. :D