How a construction worker turned 'stuffy' poetry into a high-energy sport
In short: In the 1980s, Marc Kelly Smith felt that traditional poetry had lost its passion and retreated into academia. His solution was radical: turn poetry into a competitive performance where the audience holds the power to praise or destroy the work in real time.
The poetry slam movement began in Chicago during the 1980s as a deliberate effort to bring verse back to the people. Marc Kelly Smith, a local poet and construction worker, initiated the first weekly event at the Get Me High Lounge in November 1984. His goal was to strip away the perceived stuffiness of traditional recitals and replace it with high-energy performance, writing, and direct audience participation.
The format quickly evolved into a structured competition. After moving to the Green Mill jazz club in July 1986, the slam adopted a specific scoring mechanism: five random audience members judge performances on a scale of 0 to 10. To ensure fairness, the highest and lowest scores are dropped, and the remaining three are totaled. A unique 'sacrificial' poet is often used before the competition begins to calibrate the judges' scoring, though their results are disregarded.
While some critics argue that the competitive nature of slams makes them too informal or unconventional compared to print poetry, the movement has achieved massive cultural reach. It inspired the National Poetry Slam—an annual five-day event running from 1990 through 2018—and has influenced modern media and literature. Even institutions like Berklee College of Music have begun integrating slam into formal programs as a minor course of study.
Today, slams are held in diverse venues including parks, bookstores, and bars. They operate under general guidelines: poems must be original works by the performer, typically capped at three minutes (with a 10-second grace period), and performed without props or musical accompaniment. This accessibility has allowed slam to become one of the most inclusive forms of poetry available today.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Slam poetry | Definition, Guidelines, & History | Britannica
- Also: Poetry slam
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