Speak Your Word!

In 1986, Marc Kelly Smith hosted the first poetry slam at the Get Me High Lounge in Chicago. He shared the stage with Mike Barrett, Rob Van Tyle, Jean Howard, Anna Brown, Karen Nystrom, Dave Cooper, and John Sheehan, all fellow members of the Chicago Ensemble of Poetry, and the event soon migrated to the Green Mill, a tavern and jazz lounge in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood.

The movement grew to a worldwide phenomena and today, the National Poetry Slam features approximately 80 certified teams each year, culminating in five days of competition. This competition--described by Marc Smith as "part Super Bowl, part poetry summer camp, and part traveling exhibition"--is the slam's highest-profile showcase. As for the participants, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Slam Poetry has this to say about the early slam poets:

"The experimenters in this new style of poetry presentation gyrated, rotated, spewed, and stepped their words along the bar top, dancing between the bottles, bellowing out the backdoor, standing on the street or on their stools, turning the west side of Chicago into a rain forest of dripping whispers or a blast furnace of fiery elongated syllables, phrases, snatches of scripts, and verse that electrified the night."

Our own city has a vibrant Slam Poetry scene. The Empyrean coffeehouse (154 S. Madison) hosts Spokane Poetry Slam tournaments the second Thursday of every month at 7 pm. Poets perform their work in front of judges selected from the general audience. Before the competition there is an open mic session and world class slam poets are regularly featured during intermissions.

In addition, Get Lit! Programs and Writers in the Community work with students in our community to hone their Slam Poetry skills and ultimately compete in one of tournaments that takes place during the Get Lit! Festival. For next year's festival, we've added a college night in addition to our regularly featured youth and teen events. Here are the dates:


Monday, 13th April, 5.30 pm - Youth Slam Poetry (ages 5-12) at the Kress Gallery in the RiverPark Square mall.

Tuesday, 14th April, 6.30 pm - Teen Slam Poetry (ages 13-18) at the Empyrean coffeehouse.

Wednesday, 15th, 7.30 pm - College Slam Poetry at the Empyrean coffeehouse.


If you are interested in perfecting your Slam Poetry prose by inviting someone to your school/college or if you want to find out more about participating in the Get Lit! Festival tournaments, please contact Ross Carver (354 7437, witc@ewu.edu) for the youth and teen events, and Daniel Harrington (218 8426, lotuscreations4U@gmail.com) for the college event.

We're looking forward to seeing you on stages around town.

Just remember: "The point is not the points. The point is the poetry!"