Gary Mex Glazner (born 1957), is a poet and author. He was the Managing Director of the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City, 2007 to 2010.
In 1990, Glazner working as a florist in San Francisco. [1] As poet and organizer in that city's ever-evolving spoken word community, he was instrumental in organizing the first ever National Poetry Slam, which featured poets from San Francisco, Chicago and New York City. In the book, Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam, author Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz wrote:
...[N]either Chicago-based poetry slam creator Marc Smith nor Bob Holman of the Nuyorican organized the first National Poetry Slam. The first "Nationals Slammaster" was a San Francisco poet-florist named Gary Mex Glazner. Stocky, tan and impish with a quick and crooked smile, Glazner resembled your favorite bartender more than poetry-organizing guru. But in 1990, it was Glazner, already famous for his unpredictable ideas for championing poetry, who came up with the idea of using San Francisco's National Poetry Festival as the backdrop for the first National Poetry Slam." [1]
To promote the first National Poetry Slam, Glazner used such "unpredictable" ideas as hiring a circus barker outside of the venues in which the slams were happening "like at the freak show at Coney Island", [2] selling hot dogs from a vendor during the slam, and the use of a "PoJ Kit," which Glazner described as a mobile DJ unit wherein poets can perform and broadcast their poems onto the street while being driven around in Glazner's car.
Glazner's relationship continued with the Poetry Slam movement. In 1993, he helped organize the fourth National Poetry Slam held in San Francisco again. In 2000, he organized the "Slam America" bus tour, which involved "38 live poetry shows in 32 cities over 30 days with more than 100 poets." [3] The poets in tour would perform and tour together in various "legs" as the tour bus as they traveled to the 2000 National Poetry Slam held in Providence, RI. The tour resulted in the documentary, "Busload of Poets."
Glazner also edited the anthology, "Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Spoken Word" which was published by Manic D Press in 2000. The book "documents 10 years of poetry slams, with 100 poems from national slam champions and a dozen essays on how to run a slam, winning strategies, tips for memorizing poems, and more." [4]
In addition to his work in the Poetry Slam community, Glazner has authored four books: 2002's Ears on Fire: Snapshot Essays in a World of Poets (La Alameda Press), 2005's How to Make a Living as a Poet (Soft Skull Press) 2006's How to Make a Life as a Poet (Soft Skull Press) and 2014's Dementia Arts: Celebrating Creativity in Eldercare, (Health Professions Press).
Glazner was poet-in-residence at Desert Academy in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2005-2006. His Precision Poetry Drill Team was featured on National Public Radio's All Things Considered: New Mexico School Lets Students Letter in Poetry
Glazner is the founder and Executive Director of the "Alzheimer's Poetry Project" In 2013 the Alzheimer's Poetry Project was the recipient of the "2013, Rosalinde Gilbert Innovations in Alzheimer’s Disease Caregiving Legacy Award." In 2012, the Alzheimer's Poetry Project was the recipient of the MetLife Foundation Creativity and Aging in America Leadership Award in the category of Community Engagement. The award was administered by the National Center for Creative Aging. In 2018, Glazner was the co-recipient of the International Leadership in Arts and Health Award, administered by the "Australian Centre for Arts and Health."
In 2020, in response to COVID-19, Glazner began to use robots to deliver poetry programs and creativity training to help reduce social isolation of elders in nursing homes. "Times Villager Robot helps senior-living residents communicate with families."
Glazner currently lives in Chicago, Illinois.
A poetry slam is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. While formats can vary, slams are often loud and lively, with audience participation, cheering and dramatic delivery.
Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of recitation and word play, such as the performer's live intonation and voice inflection. Spoken word is a "catchall" term that includes any kind of poetry recited aloud, including poetry readings, poetry slams, jazz poetry, pianologues, musical readings, and hip hop music, and can include comedy routines and prose monologues. Unlike written poetry, the poetic text takes its quality less from the visual aesthetics on a page, but depends more on phonaesthetics, or the aesthetics of sound.
Edwin Torres is a Nuyorican performance poet. His work incorporates vocal and physical improvisation. He is the author of Ameriscopia, One Night: Poems for the Sleepy, Yes Thing No Thing, and several other poetic books. He also has produced recordings titled Oceano Rise, Novo, and Holy Kid. He is a member of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E school.
Alix L. Olson is an American poet who works exclusively in spoken word. She uses her work to address issues of capitalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, misogyny, and patriarchy. She identifies as a queer feminist.
Marc Kelly Smith is an American poet and founder of the poetry slam movement, for which he received the nickname Slam Papi.
Roger Bonair-Agard is a poet and performance artist. He has made numerous television and radio appearances, has led countless workshops and lectures, and has performed his poetry at many US universities as well as at international festivals in Germany, Switzerland, Milan, and Jamaica. He has been accused of sexual abuse by multiple people, including other poets.
Beau Sia is an American slam poet.
Hal Sirowitz is an American poet.
The Bowery Poetry Club is a New York City poetry performance space founded by Bob Holman in 2002. Located at 308 Bowery, between Bleecker and Houston Streets in Manhattan's East Village, the BPC is a popular meeting place for poets and aspiring artists.
Buddy Wakefield is an American poet, three-time world champion spoken word artist, and the most toured performance poet in history. His latest works have been released by Righteous Babe Records (album) and Write Bloody Publishing (books). He has lived in Sanborn, New York, Baytown, Texas, Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles, California, and currently lives in Porto, Portugal.
Lynne Procope is a Trinidadian-born American poet. She is one of the founders of the louderARTS Project. In 1998, Procope made the 1998 Nuyorican Poetry Slam team. She and her fellow Nuyorican team members Alix Olson, Steve Coleman and Guy LeCharles Gonzalez would go on to win the 1998 National Poetry Slam Championship that year in Austin, TX. This championship would lead to Soft Skull Press publishing the anthology Burning Down the House which showcased poetry by Olson, Procope, Coleman and Gonzalez as well as poetry by the 1998 Nuyorican Team's coach, Roger Bonair-Agard. Her best known poems include "Elemental Woman", "Flectere" and "Evidence of Injury". Her writing focuses on the human experience of women and marginalized groups.
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Staceyann Chin is a spoken-word poet, performing artist and LGBT rights political activist. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Pittsburgh Daily, and has been featured on 60 Minutes. She was also featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where she shared her struggles growing up as a gay person in Jamaica. Chin's first full-length poetry collection was published in 2019.
Taylor McDowell Mali is an American slam poet, humorist, teacher, and voiceover artist.
The National Poetry Slam (NPS) was a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and, occasionally, Europe and Australia, participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurred in early August every year and in different U.S. cities. The last National Poetry Slam took place in 2018 in Chicago, Illinois.
SlamNation is a documentary film by director Paul Devlin. The film follows the National Poetry Slam in Portland, Oregon.
City Lore: the New York Center for Urban Culture was founded in 1986 and was the first organization in the United States devoted expressly to the "documentation, preservation, and presentation of urban folk culture." Their mission is to produce programs and publications that convey the richness of New York City—and America's—living cultural heritage. In addition to regular programming that includes the Place Matters Awards and the People's Hall of Fame, the organization works with a wide range of partners to develop exhibitions, publications, and documentary films, and to advocate for the rights of street performers, ethnic clubs, and other grassroots cultural expressions in New York City. City Lore works in four cultural domains: urban folklore and history, preservation, arts in education, and grassroots poetry traditions. Described by Sonnet Takahisa of the September 11th Memorial Museum as "wise renegades," their programs include People's Poetry Project, Place Matters and City of Memory.
Daniel Murlin Nester is an American writer, editor, and poet.
Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is an American nonfiction writer and poet.
Sarah Kay is an American poet. Known for her spoken word poetry, Kay is the founder of Project V.O.I.C.E., a group dedicated to using spoken word as an educational and inspirational tool.
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