Poetry Slams

Started by Oryx June 10th, 2011 10:50 AM
  • 622 views
  • 2 replies

Oryx

CoquettishCat

Age 30
Female
Seen January 30th, 2015
Posted December 27th, 2014
13,184 posts
12.2 Years

Poetry Slams


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How many of you enjoy attending or reading at poetry slams? Are there many in your area?


Poetry Slams are basically recitals of oral poetry, sometimes with a contest attached to who has the best reading. Poetry is written differently than a normal poem, with a bigger focus on rhythm, flow, and rhyme. Often, the line breaks only serve as reminders to the poet for where to break, and nothing more, while in written poetry meaning is written into the line breaks.


Often oral poetry is linked with hip-hop and rap, as they can sound like rapping if you choose to. However, the author can also imitate a slow, broken sound, a galloping pace, or a rambling, slow pace if they wish. A true master of oral poetry can even switch between the pacings at will.


Poetry slams are full of both criticisms and praise, ranging from a hatred of the competitive aspect to people that join professional teams to compete in poetry slams. Of course, there are also open mic performances that have no competition involved.


Discuss:
-Poetry Slams and their role in modern poetry
-Your interest in oral poetry
-The benefits and disadvantages of competitive poetry


Theme * Pair * VM * PM

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Are all men stupid?

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Esper

California
Seen June 30th, 2018
Posted June 30th, 2018
One of my roommates in college was into poetry slams. I went to one where she performed once and while I thought she had some interesting work I was pretty turned off by the other performers. It felt like a rapping competition with too much emphasis on the style of the performance and not enough on the words themselves. I've not gone to any since that one. Maybe I just had a bad/out of the ordinary experience, I dunno. I like poetry and I'd like to give these another try, but I think I care more about the quality of their work rather than their stage skills so maybe this isn't my thing in the first place. Am I off in my impressions?
Age 36
Seen 17 Hours Ago
Posted 2 Days Ago
I've been to a few poetry slams, back when I was taking a poetry class at college. They were all right. Not really for me, since I don't perform and have difficulties concentrating on people talking. But the poetry itself was actually amazing. It's just that I would have preferred reading the poems.

Poetry slams are still good to have, since they're a way for new poets to break in, reading their work to a crowd and getting their work out there. Plus, some poetry just sounds better being heard instead of read.

It matters who's at the poetry slam. Both poets and the audience. Some that I went to the people cared more about how they looked while reading instead of their words, and the audience just gave applause instead of any constructive reviews at all. While other slams that I've been to, the poems read are great and the audience actually participates more with the poet.

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