Smith was born in 1949 and grew up on the southeast side of Chicago. He attended/graduated Charles P. Caldwell Elementary School and James H. Bowen High School. Smith spent most of his young life as a construction worker, but has written poetry since he was 19.
Uptown Poetry Slam
Smith started at an open mic night at the Get Me High lounge in November 1984 called the Monday Night Poetry Reading.[1] Even as poets scoffed at artists "performing" their work, rather than gently "reading" it, the event grew in popularity.[1] Smith saw his approach as an "up yours" to establishment poets he considered snooty and effete, because at their events, "no one was listening".[2]
According to Smith, who once attended a conventional reading with his manuscripts concealed inside a newspaper,
The very word 'poetry' repels people. Why is that? Because of what schools have done to it. The slam gives it back to the people.... We need people to talk poetry to each other. That's how we communicate our values, our hearts, the things that we've learned that make us who we are.[3]
With a like-minded troupe, Smith hosted the first poetry slam at the Get Me High Lounge in the Bucktown neighborhood in 1986.[4] The event soon migrated to the Green Mill, a tavern and jazz lounge in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, where it has remained ever since.[4][5] Other poets in the first slam were Mike Barrett, Rob Van Tuyle, Jean Howard, Anna Brown, Karen Nystrom, Dave Cooper, and John Sheehan, all fellow members of the Chicago Poetry Ensemble.[1] According to Smith, the first slam was more variety show than competition.[1] Though all slams vary in format, Smith is considered responsible for key features, including the selection of judges from the audience and cash prizes.
As stated in the PBS television series, The United States of Poetry, a "strand of new poetry began at Chicago's Green Mill Tavern in 1987 when Marc Smith found a home for the Poetry Slam." Smith had found a crowd-inclusive, entertaining method for nurturing the poetry scene. Since then, the poetry slam has spread throughout the world, exported to over 500 cities large and small.
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 describes the influential Smith:
Extremely well-read and a disciplined, passionate writer, Smith did not think of poetry as something lofty, a refined ideal that people should strive to achieve. Rather, he believed that poetry should reflect the core of one's being, that it was a raw part of humanity, and that a poet had to be both fearless and dogged to tackle it properly. His dedication to this belief was so evident that when Smithsonian magazine covered the poetry slam phenomenon in their September 1992 issue, the reporter described Smith as "almost visionary on the need to rescue poetry from its lowly status in the nation’s cultural life."[6]
Since July 1986, Smith has run the Uptown Poetry Slam, a three-hour show featuring an open mic (1 hour), feature—poet or professional touring act (1 hour), and the poetry slam. It is the longest-running, weekly poetry show in the country, and one of the longest-running shows in Chicago history.
In 1990, the first National Poetry Slam was held in San Francisco (with three city teams attending including Chicago and New York City), and has continued to rotate among cities.[7] The National Poetry Slam currently sees over 80 teams of poets vying for the title.
Over the years, Smith has turned down offers to commercialize the slam, including movie offers and bids for corporate sponsorship.[2] Smith says that what he considers to be Slam's increased commercial exploitation, and Def Poetry Jam in particular, as having "diminished the value and aesthetic of performance poetry." This, combined with a continuing lack of Slam's recognition by "big literature festivals and institutions" in America, has led Smith to become more invested in performance poetry in Europe, where he says the "audiences are growing over there. And the aesthetic is growing and evolving."[8]
Smith has published several books about the poetry slam movement, as well as publishing two books of his own work. He tours extensively, performing his own, blue-collar, Carl Sandburg-influenced poetry and hosting poetry slams. He also tours with a show titled Sandburg to Smith-Smith to Sandburg, which combines the work of both poets with live jazz.[9] With Mark Eleveld, he has developed a podcast, "Thru the Mill with Marc Kelly Smith".[5]
Bibliography
By Someone's Good Grace, CD 1993, Publisher Splinter Group Chicago
Crowdpleaser, 1996, Publisher Jeff Helgeson
The Spoken Word Revolution, 2003, Publisher Sourcebooks Publishing, advisor to the book/narrator of CD portion
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Slam Poetry, 2004, Penguin/Alpha Press (co-written with Joe Kraynak)
The Spoken Word Revolution Redux, 2006, Publisher Sourcebooks Publishing, narrator of CD portion
Quarters in the Jukebox, CD, 2006, Publisher EM Press (www.em-press.com), live and studio tracks, with bands and solo
Histoire de dires - 2008, documentary directed by Yann Francès & Matthieu Chevallier - produced by Vivement lundi!
Related Research Articles
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.
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.
Paul Beatty is an American author and an associate professor of writing at Columbia University. In 2016, he won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout. It was the first time a writer from the United States was honored with the Man Booker.
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.
Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry, better known as simply Def Poetry Jam or Def Poetry, is a spoken word poetry television series hosted by Mos Def and airing on HBO between 2002 and 2007. The series features performances by established and up-and-coming spoken word poets. Performances also include special appearances by well-known actors and musicians, as well as occasional performances by Mos Def himself. Co-created by Bruce George, Danny Simmons, Deborah Pointer, Stan Lathan, and Russell Simmons, the show is a spin-off of the popular Def Comedy Jam which began airing on HBO in the 1990s. As with Def Comedy, Simmons appears at the end of every episode to thank the audience.
Craig O'Neil Grant, also known as Craig muMs Grant and muMs da Schemer, was an American poet and actor best known for his role as Arnold "Poet" Jackson on the HBO series Oz.
Gary Mex Glazner, is a poet and author. He was the Managing Director of the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City, 2007 to 2010.
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.
Tracie Morris is an American poet. She is also a performance artist, vocalist, voice consultant, creative non-fiction writer, critic, scholar, bandleader, actor and non-profit consultant. Morris is from Brooklyn, New York. Morris' experimental sound poetry is progressive and improvisational. She is a tenured professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
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 1998 documentary film by director Paul Devlin. The film follows the National Poetry Slam in Portland, Oregon.
Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is an American nonfiction writer and poet.
The Austin Poetry Slam (APS) is one of the longest running poetry venues in Texas. Founded in 1994 by Wammo of the Asylum Street Spankers and helmed for 15 years by former Poetry Slam, Inc. president, Mike Henry, Austin Slam is renowned for memorable and often raucous performances by many of the best poets in the slam poetry world. Austin Slam is best known nationally for hosting the National Poetry Slam (NPS) in 1998, 2006, & 2007, and for Austin teams' national finals stage performances in 1996, 2003, & 2008.
References
1 2 3 4 5 "In Defense of SLAM! Nation". Black Issue Book Review. March 1, 2001.
↑ Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam.Soft Skull Press. "Chapter Five: Marc Smith (So What!); The Truth about Who Invented the Poetry Slam" Page 35-36. ISBN1-933-36882-9.
↑ Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam.Soft Skull Press. "Chapter Five: Marc Smith (So What!); The Truth about Who Invented the Poetry Slam" Page 38. ISBN1-933-36882-9.
↑ Smith, Marc Kelly. "Ground Zero". nupress.northwestern.edu. Northwestern University. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
