Poetry out loud - Marc Kelly Smith, founder of the slam movement, brings spoken word show to The Acorn Theater

Poetry out loud - Marc Kelly Smith, founder of the slam movement, brings spoken word show to The Acorn Theater
By JEREMY D. BONFIGLIO
Copyright by The Herald Palladium
Published: Thursday, October 14, 2010 1:09 PM EDT
http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2010/10/14/features/2142191.txt


THREE OAKS — Marc Kelly Smith quit his construction job to pursue his dream of becoming a poet.

It’s a move he still admits “was kind of crazy if you think about it.” When Smith sought out poetry readings to share his works, he was shocked at what he found.

“When you got to them, they were some of the most boring affairs ever,” Smith says by telephone from his home in Chicago. “None of the poets, even the published poets, ever did anything to make them interesting. They mumbled the words and went on and on in the same monotone and then wondered why nobody wanted to attend these readings.”

Smith had a different idea. He saw poetry as a performance art. So he gathered a few like-minded individuals to recite works at Chicago’s Get Me High Lounge. By 1987, when they found a permanent home at the Green Mill Cocktail Inn, the poetry slam movement had begun.

“Poetry to me was a very passionate art form,” Smith says. “I couldn’t understand why a poet wouldn’t try to perform like a singer does or an actor and try to do it well. That’s what I and other poets in Chicago learned on our own in trial and error to become performers.”

Smith, who remains a staple at the Green Mill, is widely considered to be the founder of the poetry slam movement. On Saturday, he will perform and serve as host for the Uptown Poetry Slam at The Acorn Theater in Three Oaks.

The event will feature an open mic warm-up session, followed by Smith’s poetry slam competition. Poets can recite either original or classical works and are then judged on a one-to-10 scale by previously selected members of the audience. Most slams last multiple rounds, with lower-scoring poets being knocked out of the competition until a winner is crowned.

Cellist and multi-instrumentalist Josh McClain also will perform Saturday and provide muscial support for Smith and the area poets who sign up for the event.

“We’re trying to bring a little bit of the

Green Mill experience out there,” Smith says.

“I know there’s been a couple of slams in Michigan City, so I’m interested to see some of the poets from the community share their stuff.”

Smith says he knew early on that he had stumbled upon something, but he never expected it to become the global phenomenon it is today.

“I knew we had hit magic,” Smith says. “We went from four people to 20 people in a few weeks and it just kept growing. What I didn’t ever imagine was the spread internationally, but what I have learned traveling to slams in other countries is that we are definitely one species. Our differences are arbitrary, created by institutions and governments and religions that try to put us at odds. But the slam experience is the same across the world.”

Smith, who was born on the southeast side of Chicago, quickly became known for his innate sense of rhythm and the unflinching realism in works full of grit.

His original poems cover topics such as wearing the coat of his dead father to the thoughts of a bicycle messenger racing through the streets of the city. On Saturday, Smith will perform “Train,” one of his most famous works – “the one other slam poets make fun of now,” he says – but will wait “to see how the night goes,” before divulging the rest of his planned repertoire.

“The famous train poem is my icebreaker,” he says. “But this night is mostly about the community and the people who come out to participate; to give them the best opportunity and the audience the best opportunity to enjoy it.”

From the beginning, Smith says, that sense of community, or shared art, has been the appeal not only in the slam poetry movement but in all spoken word performance poetry that has since followed.

“That’s what the slam said: Here join our community of poets who take very seriously the art of performing,” Smith says. “The main definition is the remarriage of the art of performing with the art of writing poetry.”

When asked what makes a good slam poem, Smith is quick to respond.

“ All great poetry is performance poetry,” he says. “It’s the music of language. A good slam poem combines the best possible text with the best possible performance. I think a more narrative form of poetry has developed out of it but slam poetry is about any kind of text presented with performance. There’s no one style. We have sonnets and haiku slams. All the performance technique and writing technique over the centuries should be employed.”

It’s also why Smith says much of his own on-stage repertoire includes classic poems from Sandburg, Frost Cummings, Dunbar and more.

Although slam poetry certainly has its critics among traditionalists, the movement has been universally credited with an increase in poetry book sales and interest in poetry in general. But book sales, outside of his own, is of little concern to Smith.

“True art is not supposed to be a commodity,” Smith says. “For me art and the poetry slam as an art movement is about changing people’s lives, changing their perspectives and opening doors. That’s what keeps me doing it.”

jbonfiglio@TheH-P.com

If you go

WHAT: Marc Kelly Smith’s Uptown Poetry Slam

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: The Acorn Theater, 107 Generations Drive, Three Oaks

HOW MUCH: $15 general admission (performers should e-mail David Fink at david@acorntheater.com)

CONTACT: 756-3879 or www.acorntheater.com