The Morrill Middle School Poetry Slam---2008




Every Friday in May at the Turtle Stage in the library.    2:30 to 3:30 PM      

Poetry slams began in Chicago when a local construction worker embarked on a mission to take poetry back from the academics and ivory towers and return it to its rightful owners: the people. To underscore his belief that anyone can be both a poet and judge of poetry, he picked people randomly from the audience and asked them to score the poems on a scale of 1-10. As shown in the recent PBS documentary Poetic License, teen poets use performance poetry to create a dialogue not only with other young writers, but with the adult audience members as well. Parents who have memories of learning in school that poetry was something that was difficult and unpleasant are in shock to see the enthusiasm their children have for poetry now that it involves a microphone, a little freedom and a spirit of fun..

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Resources
Poetry Slam info for English teachers.  
An animated video on what's a slam and how it works.
Poetry Slam story in video from PBS's Newshour.
A video of Amiri Baraka talking about writing his poem about Africa.    
A video of Bob Holman reciting an excerpt from his  poem, Rock and Roll Mythology.



A Billy Collins website, Poetry 180.
Bill Moyers of PBS and his website on poetry called Fooling With Words.
Some short videos of poets reading their works. Includes Lorna Dee Cervantes, Bob Holman, Robert Pinsky and Amiri Baraka.
Here's a video of Robert Pinsky reading his poem  called ABC.
And here's the text:

ABC

Any body can die, evidently. Few
Go happily, irradiating joy,

Knowledge, love. Many
Need oblivion, painkillers,
Quickest respite.

Sweet time unafflicted,
Various world:

X=your zenith.
Timothy Medel's poem on video games.  This is an excellent example of the performance aspect of slam poetry.

The Dead by Billy Collins. The poem read by Collins with video animation.

    Click here for the text.
Forgetfulness by Billy Collins. The poem read by Collins with video animation.
Man in Space by Billy Collins. The poem read by Collins with video animation.

     Click here for the text.
If by Rudyard Kipling. An Ontiveros favorite.
Ms. Wagner reads an original poem at the Grand Slam of 2006.
Check out these poets from The Grand Slam of 2006: Abby, Manuel, Rhenchie, Rose, Shannon, Trisha, Mitch, Emanuel, Alysha and Katie.
Soul Food, by San Jose's very own Mike McGee -->

Some poems worth checking out. (Includes Richard Brautigan, Ted Kooser, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Bob Dylan, William Saroyan and others.)
The First Cut by Ronald Ardissone
Questions may be directed to robtwright
at AOL followed by a dot and a com.