Prose for a purpose!

This is an essay I wrote for my English 112 class this semester!

Prose for a purpose


I sit surrounded by the swarm of mostly teens and twenty something’s, the boys with dreads in their hair, the girls in bright colored clothes as individuality seems to ooze from there very being. They clap, snap and howl! A man on stage commands the microphone, articulating words rapidly then leisurely, piercing then soft. The room is devoured by the aroma of cigarettes and coffee. Judges scores range all the way from the low score of four to a perfect ten. Soon the night is over and the youth of Denver, Colorado disperse back to their suburban homes, college campuses, and high rise lofts in heart of the city. This night has ended but I will be back next Sunday and so will the other “slamaster’s” and their friends. This is a typical night at The Mercury Café’s weekly slam poetry competitions.


Slam poetry is a competition where poets read or recite original work (or, more rarely, that of others). These performances are then judged on a numeric scale of 1-10 by randomly selected members of the audience. On the scale 10 is the absolute best. There are no real criteria for how to judge performers but there is one rule that the performers must abide by. Each Slam poem can only last 3 minutes. Other than that freedom of expression is encouraged. Poems are often political satires and often controversial.

Slam poetry was started by a construction worker named Marc Smith at a lounge in Chicago in 1984. He wanted to encourage audience participation and freedom of expression. His weekly poetry show was an instantaneous success. Soon the grass roots movement became known as slam poetry and competitions spread nationwide. In every city and every urban coffee shop poets were born. Then in 1990 the first ever national slam competition was held in San Francisco. The first competition hosted only four teams but the 2009 slam poetry competition hosted more than 30 teams and numerous individuals from all over the country.

David Meinert one of the founders of slam poetry in Seattle said he loved the emerging movement because, “drunks could read poetry, poets could get drunk, and the crowd could give them all hell." Slam poetry was becoming big amongst the youth of America yet; many educators had their doubts. In the world of education poems were meant to be read, analyzed and discussed in an academic setting. Many teachers feared what would happen if students were allowed complete freedom of expression as many of the poems were not censored. Another group, a non academic group, started the “anti-slam” in response to the emerging sub culture. In the anti-slam all participants get 6 minutes instead of 3 and each performer gets as perfect 10 by all the judges. Harold Bloom- a literary critic- called slam poetry “The death of art.” Bloom’s very bold statement caused even more controversy. Although slam has received much criticism it has also received acclaim and was even featured on an MTV Unplugged special. There have been several documentaries made, and dozens of book written about slam poetry,

Through the debate that surrounds it I believe slam will be ever popular among today’s youth! As you can see, its popularity is rising everyday and with that more skeptics of the sport will surly follow.

videos of some of my favorite slam poetry performances
What teachers make -Taylor Mali
The Impotence of proof reading-Taylor Mali
Like Lilly Like wilson-Taylor Mali
How to write a political poem-Taylor Mali
Toney Steinburg-Taylor Mali
This is for you- Chico speaks out team
PCPentutbutter Jelly-Chesko
podslam.org has a bunch more look under more content
Yellowbird-Andrea Gibson
For Eli-Andrea Gibson
Say yes-Andrea Gibson
Prop 8 I do-Andrea Gibson