Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 16, 1993 TAG: 9311160157
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Mark Morrison STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Maybe too cool, some say.
But Smith doesn't care what some people say. He is like a missionary - out to bring poetry back to the people through his Chicago invention, the poetry slam.
He can't be readily dismissed, either.
Since his first slam in 1986, similar poetry slams have sprouted up across the country. He estimates there are about 35 now, including one in Roanoke, at the Iroquois Club.
Smith will be at the Iroquois Club slam tonight as a guest poet/performer. It is part of a weeklong tour he is on to help promote the slams and possibly begin establishing a circuit for touring poets.
In addition to Roanoke, he will be in Washington, Norfolk and several places in Maryland. He also will give a lecture at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Maxwell's in Blacksburg.
Some critics have been harsh on Smith.
His poetry slams in Chicago are noisy, combative competitions, with amateur poets sharing their work over the heckling of unforgiving audiences. There is also a panel of judges who score the poetry readings like Olympic events.
Smith, 44, said the slams are supposed to be simply a light-hearted alternative to the pretentiousness of so-called serious poetry. "It's like touch football. You get out there, play and have fun," he said in a telephone interview.
It doesn't really matter whether you're good.
What does matter, he said, is connecting people with language and getting them to enjoy an evening of listening to words.
"Getting poet and people together is the real point."
In Chicago, at the Green Mill jazz club, Smith's weekly poetry slams draw standing-room-only crowds and earn the former construction worker a modest living.
People are no longer afraid of the "p" word, he said.
"It's become respectable," he said.
But critics - mostly from the ranks of academia - would disagree. They scorn the slams as poetry gong shows; Geraldo in iambic pentameter; where pleasing the crowd takes priority over creating anything worthwhile.
Smith dismissed this criticism.
He said poetry has become too exclusive, the domain of college professors more interested in glorifying themselves in their own circles than in connecting with an audience. He said their attitude has been: "If you weren't in the know, then you had no right to do it."
Perhaps the snob factor is changing, though.
Anne Cheney, a Virginia Tech English professor, praised the poetry slams. "It gives you an absolutely immediate notion of how your work is being perceived," she said.
Cheney has tested some of her writing at the Iroquois slam, she said, with good results. "I have revised three poems in the middle of the Iroquois Club at midnight, and they're the better for it."
Some slam poets also are beginning to get recognized.
Boston poet Patricia Smith, for example, has won a Carl Sandburg award for her poetry and just published a book, "Life According to Motown."
"She learned her style at the slam," Smith said. And now: "She's got the established old guard scratching their heads."
Smith's own animated style grew out of the slam setting as well. He said it was out of necessity at first. "Because I had to shut people up in bars."
A Chicago native from a working-class family, Smith worked toward an English degree at Western Illinois University before dropping out during his senior year. He worked for 10 years in construction before beginning the slam.
The name, he explained, was borrowed from baseball and punk-rock slam dancing, but it fits his creation well. "It can mean slamming the guy down or a grand slam home run," he said.
He has been hesitant to capitalize on his notoriety, however. For years, his poetry was rejected by the publishers, he said. Then, once his Chicago slam became a success, he said, the offers began to roll in. "It kind of ticked me off . . . . So, I kind of took a stance against publishing anything."
In fact, Smith is cautious of commercialization in general. He wants the poetry slams to remain grass-roots endeavors, and he was less than enthusiastic about a CD of slam poetry that will soon be released.
"The motivation for the slam is not money," he said.
Rather, about the most Smith wants to do is establish a poetry circuit, similar to the comedy club circuit, where poets can travel and perform in conjunction with the local slams.
That, he said, would be cool.
New River Valley bureau staff writer Rick Lindquist contributed information to this story.
by CNB