“Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to SLAMicide!” Grandma Dave takes the role of MC tonight. His ponytailed hair swings back in forth behind his head as he, with much animation and exuberance, recites the introduction for the slam tonight. “The format of our slam will incorporate three rounds in which our competing poets will recite their original works, and be judged by members from the audience. This marks the semifinal competition for auditions, which will determine our 2009 Baltimore Poetry Slam Team (A formality but nonetheless necessary). Performers may not use props, or aids of any kind while performing. Feel free to encourage poets throughout their performance. We will use five members to judge this competition. Audience, it is your job to sway the judges. Judges, do not be swayed by the audience.”
His words are fast and melodic, as if he recited this speech countless times before. “Is there anyone who has never been to a poetry slam?” He looks around the sparse room hopefully, searching for new audience members in the handful of people who showed up. Recognizing a couple of new faces, he walks over to them and asks if they want to judge. Breaking format, he also asks a few veteran audience members to judge, in order to assemble a group of five. To them, he recites this speech:
“You have been asked to judge a poetry slam. For those of you who have never judged before, your task is to assign each poem a score of 1.0 to 10.0 based on the quality of the writing and performance. Up to 5 points should be given for the literary merit and 5 for the enactment of the poem. You will give each poem only one score. Trust your gut; and give the better poem the better score.
“The audience may boo you, that’s their prerogative, don’t take it personally. Try and be consistent with your scores. Although the high and low scores will be thrown out, don’t ever make a joke out of your score thinking that it doesn’t really matter. A poem about geometry does not automatically deserve pi as a score. Nor does one about failing a breathalyzer test deserve a 0.08. Your scores may rise as the night progresses. That’s called “Score Creep.” As long as you stay consistent, you’re doing your job well. The poets have worked hard to get here; treat them with respect, but know there would be no show without you.”
He hands each judge a pad and magic marker, and walks off. As the slam commences, judges write their scores on the pads and wave them high in the air for all to see. To calibrate, the team offers a sacrifical poet, in this case a short, middle aged performer named Steve. As the real competition gets underway, some scores get boos, while others receive cheers. The audience always hopes to cause score creep. Tonight, Chris August wins with a total of 83 points. The judges have done their jobs well.
Over the course of the semster, I engaged in participant observation in Baltimore, studying the subculture of of the Baltimore Slam Team. Over the course of my ethnography, I focused mainly on divergent roles, expectations and values in order to understand the relationships between performers, judges, MCs and audience members.
What is slam?
Any definition I ever hear of the term slam poetry always contains the word performance. Most also contain the audience. I think that, although slam is ultimately an umbrella under which many other forms of poetry are contained, it is defined by how immediate it is, the fact that it is designed to be performed and that it directly engages an audience. Something else defining about slam is how much it encompasses. Hip hop can be slam. Story telling can also. Ditto stand up comedy and sonnets. -Chris August
What roles do each participant play?
When I MC an event, as you know, I get really nervous before the show starts, because I feel like nobody’s going to show up and the show is going to be terrible. I also think I’m a bad MC because I care to much about the crowd and get preoccupied by worrying whether people are listening and stuff, but when a show is going well, I start to feel good and can actually enjoy the poetry. And as for the role as an MC, you have certain obligations to entertain the audience and whatnot but for the most part, just say the poet’s name and move on. Certain poets, and the Colonel in New Hampshire does this, they talk so much between poems, I love the Colonel to death, but people talk a lot sometimes. Like if there’s a poem about a restaurant, they’ll all be like “that reminds me of this one time when…” We want to hear the next poet, just move on…Michael Herdson actually, said that the reason why he stopped going to one of the local slams in Baltimore was that the host was talking too much. That’s a common problem, so for the most part, I try and keep it short and sweet. But if a poet is nervous or first-time performing, I like to say some encouragement or affirmation of a good job. Like when you performed, it reminded me of this one time in New Hampshire, where this dude who was a friend of the Colonels who was forced into it started slamming, and I remember the first poem, which was really intense, The first time my mother saw me she cried, like it was whack, some really intense shit, but it was good. And so he went on then in the middle of this one poem, he just forgot it, and like He said “I’m sorry, I can’t finish,” and sat down. So Colonel said “Give him a round of applause. Not because he failed, that happens, whatever, but because he was pressured into it, and he actually performed.” I mean I actually feel bad about making you slam. Like you did a good job but I felt like it was forced. It really it pretty low maintenance to be an MC, but one thing I always try to keep in mind is to be available to everyone, and not relegate myself to the VIP corner but be open so everyone can know what it is we’re doing tonight, the history of slam or other questions. As a performer, I mean I don;t think I’m good, but like poetry is one of the most welcoming communities in the word. It reminds me a little but of the punk world, like you have a lot of weird schizophrenic people in the punk scne, because it’s one of those things that will accept anybody. That’s what poetry is like. As much as I may privately judge a poet as good or bad, performance is about expression, in the really cheesy but still authentic way. If anyone wants to perform a poem, it’s like we will give you a mic and we will give you an audience. Which I think is just a great idea, don’t spend 10 minutes but whatever. As far as performing it’s always nerve racking standing in front of a crowd, like everyone says public speaking is everyone’s number one fear and death is number two. But for me, everyone else was sharing their expression too, so it felt like it was nothing special. Like the whole audience is naked thing, I mean you feel sort of vulnerable, but the only nerves you feel, at least for me, were the nerves that you feel when you’re standing in front of any group of people. I think especially at good venues, you get rewarded for what you do well. Like Heidi and Ryan, they clap or snap when a line of a poem is good even if the rest of it sucks. And poetry , you’re encouraged to react to the poet and the poem. YBut really, you’re rewarded for what you do well, people appreciate that you’re there and performing. It’s like in english class when a teacher reads a fucking horrible paper they can still say, “This is great right here.” SO I’m not saying that poetry isn’t bad, but even if it is bad, it is judged in a supportive community. Am I making any sense at all or just rambling?
With regards to judges, they are the most hated and most loved in the poetry culture, with reason. I always take the judges aside beforehand, because the first time I ever did it, I was taken aside and told…because it’s a really serious thing, judging. And I take them aside and I tell them my whole speil, and warn them of score creep, being fair, you cannot possibly emphasize the importance of scorecreep to a judge. I think scorecreep is why I side with the judges, because they take a lot of shit from the audience. At the same time, I tell the audience that it’s their job to sway the judges, and tell the judges not to be swayed by the audience. Judges see that they get cheered when they give 10s and booed if they give 5s, which is understandable but over the course of the night, everyone is getting all 10s and the whole system just falls apart. SO it has nothing to so with the poetry, and it’s too bad but it makes sense. The audience to judge relationship is really weird. You tell the audience that the judges don’t know what they’re doing. How can you judge poetry how can you put a number to poetry, the judges are bullshit. AT the same time, you tell the judges, They’re the audience, what the fuck do they know? And it isn’t that you’re trying to pit them against each other, but you’re trying to make them react strongly to a poem the way they feel is appropriate.
