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Fellowship Paper
The Poetry Slam Team
at the South Shore Charter
School
by Rick Small
South Shore Charter School
Massachusetts Charter School Fellowship Program 2001
During the academic year 1998-99, as part of the curriculum for the Writers
and Poets Project of the South Shore Charter School (SSCS), in Hull, MA,
we formed a poetry slam team in hopes of competing against other high schools.
During the 1999-2000 school year the poetry slam team became an after school
club open to all SSCS high school students.
For more than 20 years, state and regional teams of adult poets have been
contesting with their peers in these rollicking, freewheeling presentations
of oral poetry. Each year there are sectional competitions and a National
Championship Team Poetry Slam during the summer.
Poetry slams are competitive events, much like Olympic figure skating, diving,
and gymnastic competitions. Slams can either be individual meets or team
endeavors. A panel of three to five judges (chosen from the audience), assess
the poets in two equal categories: quality of the poetry and quality of
the presentation. Poets are allowed three minutes per presentation. No props
or music are allowed. Scores are 1 to 10 with one decimal point (e.g. 7.6).
The larger goals of the national poetry slam movement are: to stimulate
public awareness and recognition of the many (mostly unknown and unheard)
fine poets among us; encourage public appreciation of poetry; provide a
public forum for competitive poetry; offer a venue for wholesome, intellectually
grounded non-stodgy fun.
In recent years, adolescent teams (mostly non-school based) encouraged by
adult poets and poetry groups, have begun to crop up around the country.
We began poetry slams as part of the Writers and Poets Project, which is
designed to promote reading and writing in all genres. At SSCS, where education
is project based, projects are designed to enhance and complement formal
academic studies through nontraditional means.
We began poetry slams in part to provide an opportunity for the poets in
class to present their work in a relaxed and entertaining format. It also
gave those less inclined to poetry, an insight into the workings of the
poetic mind and the demands of the form. Since the project had approximately
20 students we divided the group into three or four teams to compete.
The normal aversion to public speaking had long since been overcome in the
Writers and Poets Project because from the first day we began with an impromptu
writing exercise, stimulated by a prompt provided by the instructor. Prompts
were various. Sometimes we used music, or a picture or a situation in life.
During these exercises project members were free to write in any style:
non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and song writing. Students were required to
read their works aloud for both appreciation and criticism.
As a professional writer, I know that poetry is the purest form of writing.
Compact, metaphor-laden, and free of grammatical and syntactical bonds,
poetry enables the writer to exercise his or her imagination without limit.
In turn, this poetic freedom, when studied and analyzed, doubles back and
supports better prose writing, grounded in proper syntax and good grammar--one
of the major goals of all contemporary high schools.
Furthermore, writing poetry helps the writer increase the powers of observation,
and it helps the writer develop an understanding of the value of personal
insight. Student poets also learn that true writing, regardless of style,
is rewriting and requires effort and patience. The latter virtues serve
the student well in all the endeavors of life.
By the end of the first semester, a core of eight students in the Writers
and Poets Project were committed to poetry slams and were looking for outside
competition. We contacted the South Shore Poets, a group of poets south
of Boston who join together for poetry readings and slams. This body meets
the second Thursday of every month at the Fuller Museum of Art in Brockton.
The South Shore Poets were helpful in bringing the project to their meetings,
where students witnessed not only fine poetry readings, by quality poets,
but also saw what poetry slams can be when skilled and practiced competitors
participate.
The poets group helped us establish contact with another high school in
the area that had a poetry club, with members also interested in getting
started in competitive slams. Hope Fernandez, a Spanish and English teacher,
is the mentor for the Rockland High School Poetry Club. She was enthusiastic
about getting our two groups together for slams.
That year (winter 1999) we had a couple of slams, one at each school. The
student-poets had great fun and were inspired to continue. The year culminated
in a slam at Borders Books, Braintree, in April to honor National Poetry
Month.
Supporters from both schools attended this special occasion giving the slam
the air of a highly charged athletic event. Approximately 75 spectators
watched as the two six-member teams went at each other in spirited competition.
The local Rockland cable station also taped the competition and aired it
on public TV. At that time the format we selected was to find an individual
winner not a winning team. To everyone's delighted surprise, the highest
scores were tied, one each from Rockland and SSCS. The bookstore gave each
winner a gift certificate.
There are other results, both literary and social met by the poetry slam
team at the SSCS. By enabling students to join a team of poets in a common
effort, the poetry slam team provides a stimulating, sports-like vehicle
to develop and showcase writing talent. It also provides a competitive outlet
for students who might not have the opportunity to participate in team sports
and therefore miss out on the undeniable benefits of teamwork, good sportsmanship,
and group accomplishment. Likewise it offers public recognition for many
students who seldom
receive it.
Additionally, poetry slams help students overcome the near-universal fear
of public speaking, an asset in any future vocation or career. Slams are
confidence builders. The latter is accomplished in an ironic fashion. As
Valerie Lawson, the president of the South Shore Poets, pronounces at the
beginning of each of their slams, "Poets, leave your egos at the door."
The young poets come to understand that aesthetic judgments are subjective.
The nonprofessional quality of the judges is essential to the overall strength
of poetry slams. The student poets know that there is no accounting for
taste, and are therefore not crushed if they do not triumph. Rather, they
become relaxed and enjoy the slam for itself--as the best emotionally centered
athletes understand that it's only a game, and tonight's goat can be tomorrow's
hero. In this way, slams help student-poets develop stronger character and
self-assurance.
Most importantly, win or lose, poetry slams also provide our team members
with clean, unadulterated fun. They are a great way to let off steam, allowing
the more dramatic and imaginative aspects of the personality to flourish.
There have been two major obstacles in fulfilling the goals set out for
the poetry slam team. First, many parents and teachers are unaware of the
existence of slam teams. When they hear about them for the first time, the
term "Slam" (with perhaps violent overtones from the overuse of
the word in professional wrestling and rock and roll environs), is often
off-putting. At the SSCS we have explained to parents the wholesome reality
of poetry slams. Still, greater public education about the true definition
of poetry slams is needed.
What's more, some parents and teachers, in this era of political correctness,
eschew the notion of competition as unworthy in an academic environment.
In this, they disregard how competitive all walks of life actually are.
This misperception discounts the valuable lessons learned in healthy, open,
and fair competitive events (i.e. good sportsmanship, playing by the rules,
self-sacrifice, cooperation, taming the ego, etc.).
Ironically, many people do not know that poetry competitions are as old
as the art form itself. Poetry as tribal story telling is the first and
most universal of all literary forms. Indeed, anthropologists tell us that
oral poetry precedes written language by many millennia.
In Classical Greece and Rome, well into the Middle Ages, poetry recitations
were competitive events with substantial prizes and fame going to the successful
competitors. During the classical age of Athens (5th century BCE), poets
achieved the status of masters in competitive declamations of their poetry.
Winning poets, as established by public affirmation, were then able to teach
poetry for fees.
The second, and perhaps most difficult obstacle in pursuing poetry slam
competitions, has been the inertia found in many traditional public school
English departments. While a few scattered schools have poetry slam teams
(disparate geography makes for scheduling difficulties), many other teachers
are reluctant to take on the additional workload required to coach and support
these teams.
Because there is as yet no formal curriculum for poetry slam teams and there's
a general lack of awareness of the phenomenon, the reluctance of some faculties
and administrations to get involved is partially understandable.
There is also a more insidious explanation for the hesitancy of some traditional
public schools to get involved, and that is aversion to participating with
charter schools in anything that will appear to give charter schools legitimacy.
In time, as charter schools become less of a novelty and appear less threatening
to conventional public schools, I hope that poetry will prevail over present
day prejudices.
At this time there is no training for poetry slam team coaches. English,
speech, drama, and language teachers are the natural pool for those assuming
this role. Any teacher with an interest in, or love of poetry can become
a successful coach.
In my case, as a professional writer with an ongoing fondness and appreciation
of poetry, I realized that my greatest weakness as a poetry slam team coach
is on the performance end, which in competitive scoring is of equal importance
to quality of writing. Accordingly, I enlisted the help of a friend, another
professional writer who is also a trained actor, to assist in preparing
our poets for the other key part of poetry slams--presentation. Erik Sherman
volunteers as a part-time coach and has become an essential member of our
team.
Erik gives the poets a range of physical and speaking exercises designed
to elicit the best performance from each in competition. As a writer, poet,
and musician, he has a fine ear for the literature itself, along with the
necessary skills of a drama coach.
Another fine aspect of poetry slams, is that they are not gender specific.
Both girls and boys compete on equal footing. Students become mentors and
coaches for each other. They are their own greatest supporters. The team
becomes the focus rather than the individual, although when performing their
poetry, the students are engaged in a solitary quest that affords much self-satisfaction
and a sense of courageous accomplishment.
In three years of competition, we have never had less than six official
team members and have never had a problem fielding a team. We have also
had students come and participate on an informal, noncompetitive basis,
and we have had students who have participated in inter-team "scrimmages"
but have chosen not to compete in public. We believe that participation
on the team should be voluntary and that students should not be compelled,
or coerced, to compete. In time some of these "adjunct" team members
do overcome their inhibitions for public performance and join the team as
full participants.
Meeting two or three hours a week, (SSCS's current schedule) as a school
club with a faculty adviser and drama coach, is sufficient to field a competitive
team. Practices are exactly like any team sport. Poets "warm up"
by presenting new or previously presented poems. Team members and coaches
critique the poem and the presentation. In this way all students learn both
to accept and to give constructive criticism. As any teacher knows, the
best way to master a subject is to not only study it, but to also teach
it. In effect poetry slam team members become mentors and teachers to each
other.
Our poets also learn what all writers need to learn, according to the wonderful
Argentinean poet, the late Jorge Luis Borges--all writing can be improved
and one should not fall in love with ones words. Poets need to keep an open
mind and establish an ongoing willingness to listen to informed editorial
criticism. This mutual critiquing also serves to establish respect between
and strong bonds among team members.
Since the ambience of a poetry slam team is more like an athletic team than
a classroom, the criticism offered by our poets to one another has been
done in the spirit of good sportsmanship and camaraderie. In fact, the students
are especially careful not to tread heavily each others feelings. The very
competitive nature of the endeavor also serves to toughen egos. Of course,
it is always wise for the coaches to reinforce the "positive"
nature of team criticism.
Sometimes at team meetings students are given an assignment (usually a theme
or prompt for a poem) to work on for the next session. For example, we have
given poets copies of the New Yorker magazine for them to write a
poem based on the often whimsical covers.
Additionally, we may have a student poet recite his or her poem numerous
times to perfect the performance aspect. Sometimes we have the poet change
mood or pace of the poem to find the best presentation for a competition.
We also divide the poets into teams to scrimmage for upcoming slams.
Back when the Writers and Poets Project founded the SSCS's poetry slam team,
I told my students that I would not censor their writing--in class. I also
told the students that gratuitous cursing was unacceptable and represented
a weak and inadequate vocabulary. The right word is the right word. As Mark
Twain noted, "The difference between the right word and the wrong word,
is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."
However, I was adamant that students should exercise self-censorship when
it came to writing for publication and public performance. In these cases
we would not publish or perform works that would offend others through language
deemed improper (this does not apply to ideas), bring disrepute on the school,
the project, or the team. With these ground rules in place, we have never
had a controversy.
Student poets realize that they are free to write and recite anything they
want within the confines of our practices. They are grateful for this freedom
and respect the agreed upon limitations for publication and public events.
I still rely on their good sense and good taste to monitor their own work.
Themes for adolescent poets too often descend to self-indulgent teenage
angst. Knowing the difficulties of growing up, we coaches do not discourage
this genre. On the other hand, we encourage the student poets to reach beyond
these "typical" subjects, to more impersonal, universal observations.
Although poetry is usually intimate, and we come to learn much about our
team members through their work, the poetry slam team is not the place for
group psychoanalysis, and our students know this.
Since competitors in the slams are required to bring three poems for presentation,
we cultivate a roster of different thematic perspectives for each poet:
personal events, impersonal observations, comic as well as dramatic. Poets
realize that an unending menu of dreary "woe is me" coming-of-
age suffering, is not only tedious, it is trite.
Fortunately, a few teachers have joined with us to promote this endeavor
with interscholastic events. In the last three years, we have competed regularly
(five or six times a year) against Rockland High School (Rockland, MA) and
teams organized by Positive Teens Magazine (Brockton, MA). This past
year we have also competed against the Connecticut State Teen Poetry Slam
Team.
As previously noted, the South Shore Poets has also been a major support
in our efforts. Borders Books (Braintree, MA) and the Fuller Museum of Art
(Brockton, MA) have provided venues for our competitions, which have been
very well received by the public. At the latter location, our team has competed
against pickup teams, teams composed of poets who are unaffiliated with
other teams but wish to take part in slam competition.
As increased information is published in news articles and features (we
have been covered by the Boston Globe, Patriot Ledger, Brockton Enterprise
and the Community Newspaper Group), we expect more traditional public high
schools and charter schools to join with us in establishing leagues around
the state.
As the slams grow in popularity (they are great fun to witness), it is not
unrealistic to expect in the future that colleges will also have their own
poetry slam teams and leagues. When this comes about, certainly scholarship
money will become available to poets.
Better colleges have already begun to recognize the value of poetry slam
participation, as evidenced by the high rate of acceptance and substantial
scholarship grants to all of our graduating team members (Bowdoin College,
Marymount College, UMASS Amherst).
A measure of our academic success has been in the much improved prose writing
of all our participants. We have seen students with limited prose skills
attain a mastery of this most important scholastic craft, after participating
on the poetry slam team. In one instance, a good poet who could not write
a literate narrative piece, is now capable writing complex essays in a cohesive
and comprehensible form.
One of our team members won the statewide Lions Club Essay/Speech Competition
in 2000, with a dissertation/oration on the valuable lessons poetry has
taught him; this included one of his original poems. In his speech he noted
that poetry and poetry slams had enabled him to come out of himself and
connect with others. This poet, through his writing and competing, no longer
feels the nihilism so common to his generation. He received more than $5,000
in scholarship funds.
The other members of the team have maintained a uniformly high level of
academic achievement. Students who do not retain good academic standing
are not allowed to compete in poetry slams.
We coaches, teachers, and parents have also seen improved attitudes towards
life in our student poets perhaps the poetry slam team's most important
contribution to our school's evolving culture.
The SSCS's poetry slam team has also become a source of pride for the faculty,
administration, and student body in general. They demonstrate this pride
by coming to the slams and cheering the team on.
Our long-range goals for the poetry slam team are continued and increased
interscholastic competition, perhaps through local leagues, and the development
of a regional or state team to compete at the national level. We would also
like to produce a documentary video about the team and its members to help
disseminate the value of poetry slams.
The SSCS may never have enough qualified or interested students to field
a football team, but it will always to have poets and coaches for its Poetry
Slam Team.
About the Author
Rick Small is a professional writer and teacher. He has taught at the
South Shore Charter School in Hull, MA for six years. He teaches World Cultures,
Ethics, 20th Century Political History, Writing, and coaches the poetry
slam team. He has been a columnist for the Boston Globe and his writing
has also been in: Publishers Weekly, TAB Newspapers, Mariner Newspapers,
South Shore Business Journal, Boston Advocate and the Connecticut
Jewish Ledger. He has also taught at Montclair State College and Empire
State College. He is currently working on a non-fiction book about life
with a hybrid wolf.
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