I must go to a slam sometime - it sounds like an interesting experience. But
would it be so different to what I'm used to? A friend who was in prison in
America in the 70s told me that prisoners used to hold poetry competitions,
which they called toasts, where poems were whispered down the pipes, beaten
out with spoons, and then everyone would discuss and decide which toasts
were best and vote on it. Taken very seriously, a major form of
entertainment, and the toasts were eloquent tales of injustice, woe,
criticism of the prison system, warders and so on. Just another kind of oral
poetry, maybe having to do with the roots of hip-hop, I heard about from a
canadian in jail for cocaine smuggling.
all best
John
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