It was a true meeting of diverse minds; PhD’s slammed poetry with teens, while high school teachers shared lesson plans with graduate students. This year’s Making American Literatures session, held the first week in August at the University of Michigan, focused on “slam poetry,” a dynamic and powerful style of performance poetry. MAL’s director, U of M professor Anne Ruggles Gere, invited Jeff Kass, a creative writing teacher from Pioneer High School, to help create a workshop that would involve high school students and educators learning together.
What resulted was an experience that combined teachers from the Metro-Detroit area, U of M professors and graduate students, professional performance poets like Ayodele and Al Letson, and youth poets from as far away as California and Arizona in a one-week slam poetry workshop.
Many teachers explained that they felt out of touch with the youth culture that seems to be so much a part of slam poetry. Some teachers said they felt outdated, and were intimidated by the brash urban reality of hip-hop, and the slick, youthful appearance of its performers. While a vast majority of teachers grew up without ever hearing hiphop on the radio, and would probably not buy a Tupac album to groove to, they were eager to immerse themselves in this culture so they could find ways to reach their students. The slam poetry movement is deeply rooted in the rhythms and expressions of hip-hop culture, and many teachers saw in slam an opportunity to turn kids on to poetry using the connection to hip-hop as an on-ramp. This desire to know more about what the kids were drawn to acted as a catalyst for the constructive teacher/student relationships that developed during the week.
“We know that hip-hop exists, but how can we use it in our classrooms?” When we asked some of the youth poets this question, they looked at us warily, their gazes seeming to ask, “Is this some kind of trick? Are they going to test us on this? Teachers don’t really want to know what we think, do they?” After they were convinced we weren’t hiding any No. 2 pencils behind our backs, they gushed with ideas. And these were not wild, selfserving ideas like “Everyone-skip-class-and-listen-to-rap day,” but rather thoughtful and often painfully insightful views about pedagogical topics like classroom community, effective use of resources, and student/ teacher relationships.
Teens love nothing more than to speak their minds, and they all have voice with value. The students loved being the experts, and shared from the heart, even catching themselves saying things they never thought they would say, especially in front of teachers. Before we knew it, we had lists of hip-hop resources to use compiled by kids themselves, and mental tattoos of achingly honest conversations that affirmed these young people were a force to be reckoned with.
It was a powerful experience to see how inspiring the youth poets were to the teachers. Their bravery and creativity were on display daily as they read from their work, and this prompted many of us to take part in the fun. Watching the slam on Friday was quite an experience. Poets of all ages and levels of experience read side by side, creating and performing on common ground.
Poetry OUTLOUD ran from July 29 – August 2, 2002.
Poetry Slam Resources
Click here for information about the Making American Literatures series
For more information on slam poetry:
www.poetryslam.com
The United States of Poetry (1996 Television Documentary), Uni/Mercury/ Polygram, ASIN: B000001EJP.
Books
Poetry Slam: the Competitive Art of Performance Poetry by Gary Mex Glazner (Editor), Manic D Press, 2000, 237 pp., $15.00, ISBN: 0916397661.
Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets’ Cafe by Miguel Algarin (Editor), Bob Holman (Editor), and Nicole Blackman (Contributor), Owlet, 1994, 514 pp., $18.00, ISBN: 0805032576.
Burning Down the House: Selected Poems from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe’s National Poetry Slam Champions by Roger Bonair-Agard, Stephen Colman, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, Alix Olson, Lynne Procope, Soft Skull Press, Inc., 2000, 186 pp., $43.00, ISBN: 1887128484.
Close to Death by Patricia Smith, Zoland Books, 1993, 119 pp., $10.95, ISBN: 0944072356.
Crowdpleaser by Marc Kelly Smith, Collage Press, 58 pp., ISBN: 0965152200.