Tell Us What Chapter You Want
Slam Chapters
Joe and I want to know which subjects in the Idiot book interest you most. Let us know and we'll post excerpts from them and maybe add a little updated information to boot.
Also, take a look at the CD selections. maybe we'll figure out how to stream them to you on the blog.
Track List
Keep on slammin'
Marc
First time viewing your site, my poetry professor insists the class learns about slam poetry - which I have never heard of before.
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You're very fortunate. Obviously, your poetry professor is an enlightened being. Hopefully The Complete Idiot's Guide to Slam Poetry is a required text for the class.
I knew nothing about slam poetry before I met Marc and worked on the book, but he brought me up to speed in a hurry. Soon after we decided to work together, I headed up to Chicago for the National Slam Poetry competitions. It was a real eye-opener. I attended my first slam with my wife, Cecie. On the way up, I told her I wanted to keep a low profile. When we arrived at the venue (a dive of a bar on the north side of Chicago), I told Cecie to go on inside and find a couple seats while I parked the car. By the time I returned, Cecie had volunteered the two of us to be judges and announced that Marc and I were writing a book on Slam Poetry.
Oh well, no harm done. We enjoyed the evening. I think we gave the lowest scores of the night. Some of the performances were terrible and the poetry was even worse. I think one guy was trying to be terrible. When you see a great performance (outstanding poem performed well), however, it really shakes your bones. I was a skeptic, an old school guy, but the poet-performers and the culture of slam poetry has won me over.
Where are you from? I would encourage you to get involved. It may transform your life.
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Thanks LemonZest,
You're our first comment. This blog thing is slow getting going. The slam movement, also, was slow starting too. It actually began on a Monday night at the Get Me High Jazz Club in Nov. 1984. We had a good crowd that night but subsequent nights were sometimes "very slow" only a handful of people. Often on the slow nights we'd sit around the bar with Judy the bartender recite limericks to each other; some of them pretty raunchy. I'm not a big fan of raunchy limericks so I'm glad things picked up and the legacy of the slam is not a raunchy limerick circle in a dark bar.
thanks for repsonding -- you're the first,
marc
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