I’m going through my files trying to nail down the chronology and circumstances of slam’s spread across the world. My son and I are going to incorporate this history into the Slampapi website as the slam family tree, but we need everyone’s help. It’ll be a Wikipedia style collection of slam facts and lore.

Kurt Heinz’s “Incomplete History of Slam” is the only document I know of that attempted to record the early history of slam and that document is now twenty years old. Time to create an updated version and a process that will help us all remember and be remembered.

Visit slampapi.com and add your slam to the slam family tree.

I guess when the infamous C. J. Laity tried to brand me as a poetry “insider” he might of been right, despite my refusal to stoop to poetry “establishment” status.

Many years after helping start the “Poetry Tent” at Printers Row Book Fair I’ve been invited back. (Actually, I was invited last year but had a prior commitment — performing at a festival in France.)

Last time I performed at the Printers Row Book Fair I was insulted by a grumpy “establishment poet” from the Poetry Center. He commanded me off the stage so that “real poetry” could be heard. From him, of course. I left the stage (without punching the old guy in the nose– thank god) and so did the audience. The poem I was reciting when he called for “real poetry” was e. e. cummings’s “My Father Moved though Dooms of Love”. Hmmm, the Poetry Center must have some pretty high standards.

I don’t expect any incidents this year, but you never know. Our new Chicago non-profit, Chicago Slam Works, formed to bring Chicago the respect and focus it deserves as the mecca of modern day performance poetry will be helping run the show. Don’t know what my forty minutes will entail (maybe pulling some virgin virgins on the stage to take a stab at real poetry) but I’ll try to keep it entertaining.

Join me at the 25th annual Chicago Tribune Printers Lit Fest, which takes place on Saturday, June 6 and Sunday, June 7, 2009. The Lit Fest is a free, two-day literary extravaganza featuring more than 200 authors, 100 literary programs, and 160 booksellers.

Saturday, 6/6/2009, 3:15 p.m.

Program: Marc Kelly Smith promoting his new books

Take the Mic and Stage a Slam

Location: Arts & Poetry Stage

Saturday, 6/6/2009, 5 p.m.

Program: The Chicago Poetry Foundation presents the Chicago Poetry Audio Tour Premiere

Marc reading a couple of Sandburg poems in this marathon of Chicago poems

Location: Arts & Poetry Stage

For more information, head to the Chicago Tribune’s Printers Row Lit Fest page.

Last week, I spoke with Mike Thomas of the Chicago Sun Times, who did a great job peppering me with smart questions about the slam and its evolution, including the grand finale when he asked me how the slam has changed my life. Later in the week Richard Steele from WBEZ did an equally fabulous job digging into the whys and whats of the the two new books Take the Mic and Stage a Poetry Slam.

In case you’re interested you can check out Mike’s piece, “Poetic Musings of Slam Daddy” for the complete Q&A. (There’s a great picture too! For once I don’t look completely insane.) And the Richard Steele interview will be coming up sometime soon on WBEZ’s 848 show.

I’m burnt out on interviews (the media page on the slampapi website) but these two were a joy to do because they were done by real pros. Thanks to Mike and Richard.

P.S.  Richard asked the same grand finale question as Mike – I wonder if he’lI include it on the broadcast, and I answered it the same way. Pros think alike.

Look at this I’m actually blogging two days in a row. A record for me.
And what’s it about? Definitions.

For years I’ve been answering the same questions over and over and over. Today’s offering is and answer to the most frequently asked question and the one most often skewered by narrow points of view.

As the slam movement has expanded, its history and identity has sometimes been distorted by people (especially in the electronic media) like to pigeon hole complex concepts into bite size chunks of sound and light they can easily pack into 30 seconds of on-air broadcast or cocktail conversation. That can’t be done with the slam. It’s too big. It’s multi-headed. It refracts a very broad spectrum of human activity and exprsssion.

So, the question What is slam poetry? demands several definitions. Here a few of them in order of importance.

Slam poetry (which is synonymous to performance poetry) is the re-marriage of the art of performing with the art of writing poetry.

That doesn’t raise many eyebrows these days, but in 1984 Chicago (and the rest of the USA and most of Western Europe) to perform poetry was a radical departure from how poetry was “supposed” to be presented orally. The establishment circles of proper poets (the “famous nobodies” we called them) scorned and dismissed those of us who dare perform poetry calling us clowns, hack actors, and unfunny comedians. “A true poet allows the words to speak for themselves” was their mantra.”

“Hmmm?” I wondered, “How do words speak for themselves.”

A poetry slam is any interactive, highly entertaining performance poetry show/event modeled after the original Uptown Poetry Slam started (and still running) at the Green Mill Jazz Club in Chicago twenty-two years ago.

There is a legacy of hundreds of (maybe a couple thousand) spin-off shows that have inspired other shows that have inspired still more. But the Green Mill slam is the one that began them all and has remained the most authentic model of slam.

A poetry slam is an interactive performance poetry competition.

You can go to the Poetry Slam, Inc. and read their narrow definition of slam competitions and all the associated rules and qualification paperwork for yourself. Most slams have a competition incorporated into their events, but to say that slam poetry is simply competitive poetry is a distortion.

Any event that showcases performance poetry and encourages audience interaction is a slam whether it includes a competition or not. The competition format (a splendid theatrical device) has merely been the easiest for journalists to report on and for the less creative programmers to duplicate.

Poetry slam is a worldwide social/literary performing arts movement, a network (sometimes called a family) of performance poets, organizers, patrons, and audience members who love and passionately support performance poetry.

Poetry slam is made up of every kind of person you can imagine – scientists, grandpas, punkers, grade school kids, ex-cons, teachers, plumbers, cops, professors, homeless folks – all races, all nationalities, all ages – men, women, boys, girls. It celebrates all forms and styles of poetry: haiku, free verse, rants, sonnets, ballads, limericks, hip hop, villanelles, narratives, and even non-poems if they have something to say. It’s the big house of poetry where all are welcomed – where everything gets said that needs to be said.

For more slammin’ terms and definitions, check out our Slam Glossary.

On Sunday, April 5, sometime during the 10am to 11am CST timeslot, I’ll be appearing on the CBS 2 Chicago Weekend news show. I know, I know, So What! Exactly, but that’s my mission these days – to bark the release of the our two new guides to slam:, Take the Mic and Stage a Poetry Slam, from every street corner I can , and on Sunday April 5, that just happens to be CBS 2. That’s CUBS without the U plus 2.

If you can’t drag yourself out of bed by 10am, don’t worry. I have it on good faith that they usually post video of their interviews later in the day on their Web site: cbs2chicago.com.