I agree with Tim about Slams and performance poetry in general. Which will
seem strange, I guess, coming from someone who runs a daily blog promoting
that area of poetry (Poets On Fire). But while I always enjoy the buzz of
live poetry, I'm very much aware, as a 'page' poet (make of that what you
will!) who frequently performs at these sort of events, that the vast
majority of open mic and Slam performers are not even attempting to be
'poets' as most people would reasonably understand the term, but are more
intent on amusing and entertaining the audience, which usually involves
provoking a strong reaction from them - hilarity, disgust, fascinated horror
etc. This, coupled with the possibility of achieving a certain notoriety in
performance circles, plus increasing success at getting grants and paid gigs
on the back of their performances, encourages them to continue with the same
sort of material and means that young or new poets watching them will
probably emulate what they see as being successful and begin to write or
perform 'poetry' and spoken word in the same idiom.
This might not be an important development if 'serious' poetry - by which I
mean poetry that is informed about its own history as a written rather than
an orally delivered artform and is making an effort to engage with that
history and hopefully add something interesting or provocative to it - was
in a healthy condition, being bought and read and talked about at all levels
of society. But we all know that's not happening, nor is it ever likely to
be. Yet you only need to visit a popular open mic poetry evening to see its
popularity, the cross-section that it draws in and the strength of the
audience reaction. In the face of such a challenge, the more difficult 'page
poetry' may get pushed aside, with even fewer people than now making an
effort to get to grips with it, to read or write it for their own pleasure
or purposes.
The results of this gradual shift into poetry as a pub'n'club-associated
leisure activity are becoming clearer to me all the time. Basically, many of
the young performers I see out and about (some of them potentially talented
as page poets) clearly prefer the applause and the quick adrenalin fix of
the comic or political spoken word poem, and because of this may be - as Tim
suggests - diverted away from poetry as art into poetry as entertainment.
Other thoughts on this?
Jane
--- janeholland.co.uk
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