Slam Poetry: Slamming The Door On Traditional Poetry

For some of us, there's a sort of dread that comes along when we hear the word "poetry."

Even as an aspiring English major, I would cringe at the word "poetry," just like I die inside hearing the word "math." But during my creative writing class with Marnie Masuda, the love/hate relationship I had with poetry changed.

It started with Lilah Clay (formerly known as Lava), my first encounter with a slam poet, and then with Kealoha—and after meeting these two spoken word poets, I had no chance in resisting the charm of the new wave of art.

Poetry slams are relatively new to the scene of mainstream art, being around for a little over 20 years. In 2003, Kealoha founded the HawaiiSlam as a forum for performance poets, and he continues to host the event every First Thursday at the Fresh Café Warehouse in Honolulu.

In 2006, two Wailuku bookstore owners started the Maui Slam, and since then, the torch has been passed to UH Maui College Librarian Ellen Peterson.

Today, the Maui Slam event is held every last Thursday of every month at the Casanova Theater, (the center section of Casanova Restaurant) in Makawao.

"As a librarian and as a dancer, I am naturally drawn to the synergy between the literary and the performing arts. I appreciate how slam poetry assists in making poetry and the literary arts, in general, accessible, relevant and comprehensible in our contemporary world," Peterson explained, when asked about how her interest in the slam community came to be. "Living on Maui, with a history rich in oral traditions, we are made aware of the importance and significance of the spoken word."

In Hawai‘i, literary arts are founded in spoken word traditions. "So, in many ways, performance poetry on Maui could be considered primal and ancient," she said, "while at the same time, fresh and new."

Peterson has since expanded the monthly Maui Slam Poetry events to incorporate musical, performance and visual arts, such as live painting, hip hop shows and even some musical theater and dance. She is the hostess of these monthly soirees, as well as the annual, nationally qualifying poetry "slam scrimmage" that pits the Maui Slam against HawaiiSlam of O‘ahu. HawaiiSlam is a non-profit organization that showcases poets from each of the islands and hosts the nationally certified First Thursdays slam poetry competition, an event that typically draws more than 500 attendees.

"I'm a really outgoing guy, and no one ever believes me when I say that I have horrible stage fright," said Aaron Holmes, a poet that has been attending the Maui Slam for the past four years. When he first started, Holmes admitted he would nervously recite lines he had organized on paper—sometimes even on the night of the slam, just minutes before it begins. "Every time I go up on stage, I'm overcoming that fear," he said.

Holmes first learned about slam poetry a few years ago from a friend, and attended a slam at the The Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City's East Village. He said it "was like love at first sight," and he soon became a natural at slam poetry.

"I don't think a lot of people realize they're poets," Holmes said. "I only came to terms with the fact that yeah, maybe I was one, when I had people come up to me and recite my own lines and tell me how much those lines meant to them."

However, the Maui Slam is a 21-and-over event, leaving teenagers like myself unable to attend—and experience the magic of slam poetry firsthand. I asked both Peterson and Holmes about the possibilities of there being some sort of "all ages" event, and though it will be a bit hard to accomplish, they said not all is lost for an "Under-21" slam event.

There are a few possibilities, and possibly the most obvious one would be an event on the UHMC campus. Let's hope it happens soon.

For more information, you can contact Ellen Peterson at epeterso@hawaii.edu or check out Kealoha's website at http://www.kealohapoetry.com/, as well as the HawaiiSlam website at http://www.hawaiislam.com/index.html.

For those interested in slam poetry and maybe haven't heard of it, you can check out popular slam poet Sarah Kay on YouTube or just search for "Def Jam Poetry," where you'll find some celebrity slam poets.