Poetry Slam: You're Doing It Wrong

[scottwoods]

I recently composed a very long treatise on Slam and where I thought it should go. I posted it online for public consumption and comment in December of 2011 (“Poetry Slam: The Next Level”). The last part of that document contained a section entitled “Death by Slam: The Competition and how it will kill NPS & Slam”. As notorious as it sounds, this

Comments

[stefan11]

"But when they apply contest values and contest focus to the game, it’s not a game anymore…it’s a contest." -- in principle, it can be both; but I get your point. In competition the competitive (psychological/sociological) forces assert themselves stronger so we forget it's basically fun.

I like the suggested rules changes. However, dropping props and costumes requirements will make the even even more like a theatre (which may be good or bad). I would definitely start doing my haibuns-with-imbedded-haiga (a bit of poetic prose, some images/photos, and a closing haiku or a few). That would be so much fun.

Interestingly enough, when you mentioned poets you love, you also mentioned proven winners (at the nat and any other level). What does it say?

[sirenoftitan1]

I agree. I thought the prop/costume rules were not just to make things more "fair", but also to keep the emphasis on the poetry. Dropping them altogether could be a problem, but I think I recall a MPSL rule that was like "your team can use a prop exactly once in a bout, plan wisely".

I am all for the differently-timed rounds, and when I brought it up in the forums, one of the objections was that poets would get really angry if assigned to the 1-minute round. I think that is nonsense. Some of my best poems are short, and I'd rather present one of them than something I tried to stretch to 3 minutes.

Also, I'm surprised to see Scott laud mandatory group pieces, seeing that he generally coaches teams that bring zero group pieces.

[stefan11]

All the good points. And even if the poets protest short rounds, it still can turn into sth good. Maybe those protesters will decide that going to the Nats is not worth it for them -- sweet.

" I'm surprised to see Scott laud mandatory group pieces, seeing that he generally coaches teams that bring zero group pieces."

yes, that was funny and surprising to me, too. It looks like Scott is trying to mix things up as much as possible. Yey for this.

[radioactiveart]

I don't like group pieces either, but I'd NEVER want them removed from NPS. Others like them and I live in the hope of seeing one I might like. My personal bias isn't applicable to the competition overall.

[scottwoods]

THIS.

[wonderdave]

I did a group peice about Rabbits taking over the World with Bunnicula as the would be tyrant. I would be terribly sad had that not happened for me at an NPS. I also loved N1663R from the first group piece finals and the Sperm Poem. There have been others I like as well. On the whole I think I have a preference for solo work but I definitely want them to stick around. I might be OK with props and costumes if your set up time was factored into your actual time :D Scene Changes y'all!

[toangelblue]

I understand the intent of the prop and costume rule, but I've heard that, in part, the music, prop, and costume rules were invented because they required setup and that slowed the momentum of the show which is why a poet is allowed to wear whatever he/she decides to wear as long as it doesn't change from what he/she arrived in.

[scottwoods]

So give them 1 minute of set-up. A LOT of poets spend a minute setting up a mic and they don't have ANYTHING with them right now.

[scottwoods]

I wouldn't say I was "lauding" group work. I find much of it unnecessary and not in service to the poem at all. That said, I maintain that group work is something (and this was a paragraph I cut out of the above but can revisit now) that Slam has, not invented (see "The Four Horsemen" among others), but re-popularized. It is the one place (if not the only one then certainly the main avenue for) group work is attempted, explored and maintained as part of the general scheme of artistic offerings. We gave that back to the world with Slam. I say we keep doing the things we did right..I just want them to be better.