Performance Poetry: Slam

Poetry slam is conventionally defined as the art of competitive performance poetry. Invented in the 1980s by a Chicago construction worker named Marc Smith, slam is a fast-paced competition where poets have a limited amount of time to impress judges randomly selected from the audience. Performers use all the tricks of storytelling, songwriting, theatre, stand-up comedy, and cold hard poetry to wheedle points out of the judges from 0.0 (terrible) to 10.0 (perfect!).

(from the "What is poetry slam?" page of this year's National Poetry Slam website)

If you've seen the HBO series "Def Poetry Jam" or the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics, you know what slam poetry sounds like, but have you ever seen it performed? Did you know that Connecticut has its own Youth Slam Poetry team? The team competes in national youth poetry slams, including the first one in Hartford, CT, in 1998. You can learn more about them at Upwords, "a resource for young poets".

Below is a recording of Connecticut Youth Slam alumnae Alexandra Hart and Emily Oliver performing their collaborative poem during the Providence Slam in 2006.

(Please note that the poets slam about eating disorders and self-harm. If these issues trigger you, watch at your own discretion.)

TED: Ideas worth spreading

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) calls itself "a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading". It carries out its mission through two annual conventions (TED, held in Long Beach, CA, and TEDGlobal, held in Oxford, England, UK). As well as occurring on only two weeks throughout the year, the cost of admission ($6,000 USD) makes it tough for many people who are interested to attend. Even with the cost of admission and a less expensive satellite event at the same time as the California TED (TEDActive, $3,750 USD), the conference is booked well in advance. What if you have the means to attend, but your funding won't be available until after the conference and hotel are both booked to capacity?

Fortunately for those people-- and for the rest of us-- the TED website has launched a service called TEDTalks. Instead of hiding videorecordings of previous conferences away in a dusty vault somewhere, eighteen-minute talks from previous conferences are offered On-Demand and free of charge on the TED website. The talks are Creative Commons copyright, so it's not only free to watch them, but to spread and embed them; you can even take them with you on some personal media players*.

So far, my favorite talks are by Temple Grandin, Eve Ensler, and Jamie Oliver. What are yours?

*I have an iPod, and was able to download the talks through the podcasts service of ITunes. A search of the Zune homepage revealed they also have TEDTalks available for download.

Listen Here!

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven, New Haven Review, and New Haven Theater Company are pleased to announce the return of Listen Here, the weekly short story reading series in which actors from the New Haven Theater Company read short stories chosen by New Haven Review editors.

The spring Listen Here series will take place on Tuesday evenings, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., with reading occurring on a rotating basis at Willoughby’s Coffee & Tea (194 York Street), Lulu: A European Coffee House (49 Cottage Street), Bru Cafe (141 Orange Street), and Manjares Fine Pastries (838 Whalley Avenue, on the corner of West Rock Avenue).

View the 2010 Spring Series Schedule>