Grabbing poetry by the throat:
Enthralling or befuddling,National Poetry Slam participants will get your attention

John Walch, Austin American-Statesman, 08-22-1998.

The '98 National Poetry Slam finals

When: 8 tonight

Where: Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress Ave.

How much: $11-$13.50

Tickets: 469-SHOW or 472-5470

Information about finalists: 448-5284

Throw a stone this weekend and it's likely to come hurtling back at you with an accompanying poem etched on it.

Almost 200 poets representing 45 teams from cities across the country have descended on Austin this week to compete in the '98 National Poetry Slam. Not known for their docility, slam poets are never afraid to throw a few stones.

Fortunately, most slam poets channel their energy into their work, hurtling words at a velocity that sometimes enthralls and other times befuddles. If you've experienced any of the preliminary rounds (or bouts) that have gone on at several Austin venues this week, then you probably know that slam poetry is an unusually entertaining cross between a boxing match and an aria -- a place where art and competition butt heads.

To the uninitiated, slam poetry might first appear as an art form suffering from schizophrenia. The rules of engagement are fastidious and highly restrictive: Each poet performs one poem that can be no longer than three minutes and 10 seconds, poets cannot use props or costumes, poems are judged instantly on a scale of 1-10 by five people picked from the audience, and audiences are told to respond vocally to the poets and the scores they received. Combine these fussy rules with some cheap beer and a dimly lit, smoky club and you might have something that spells a recipe for disaster. But slam poetry is more than the sum of its parts.

In a slam, poets try to evoke a strong emotional response from the audience. To this end, their poems often hover around shocking subject matter (sex, race, politics, personal injustices, etc.) and range in tone from utterly sincere to humorously self-deprecating.

But in good slams, poets do more than just try to provoke a response; they take the energy that occurs before them and either build on it or subvert it to surprising effect. It's customary in slams for huge emotional swings to occur and entirely plausible that a hilarious poem about phone sex would follow a heart-wrenching poem about child abuse. This means that a poet (or a team of poets in the case of the nationals) must be prepared to change their lineup in response to the competition.

Poetry slams are not for the timid and, at their worst, can dissolve into little more than soap-box rants. But at their best, a slam is an emotional tilt-a-whirl that takes audiences on a ride that leaves them astounded.

Over the week, the field of 45 teams and 18 individual poets has been whittled down to the top four teams and the highest scoring six independent competitors. Tonight all four teams and all six individual poets will be competing with everything they've got in the pristine environs of the Paramount Theatre for the title of National Slam Champion. If you've already been dunked in the waters of slam, you're probably already going; if you haven't been baptized, you will not have a better chance to see slam poetry at its absolute best.

To catch you up on the action that's led up to tonight's finals, here' s a roundup of select, preliminary bouts.

Wednesday

The Ritz Upstairs

Bout 1: Winston-Salem, N.C., Manhattan, Montreal. Off to a stumble: Finicky microphones and disruptions from a conflicting event at the venue made for a tense atmosphere.

Perhaps in an effort to relieve the tension, poets played it relatively safe. Poems were humorous to ironic in tone and most seemed to have something to do with sex. The shock factor wore off quickly, however, and what was left rarely overwhelmed. Last year's champs, Manhattan, won the bout.

Scoring big points (27.4), was the independent competitor DJ Renegade from Washington, D.C., who performed a moving poem about visiting his father in jail on Christmas.

Bout 2: Asheville, Portland, Santa Cruz. Tensions ran even higher this bout and the mood turned hostile as poets competed with noise from the conflicting event. The '95 national champions from Asheville, N.C., found themselves unable to repeat past glory and wound up in third. The all-male team from Portland, Ore., scored high for a poem about war-torn Sarajevo.

It wasn't enough, though, to beat the all-female team from Santa Cruz, Calif. Wearing their politics on their sleeves, the Santa Cruz team won with poems that confronted the patriarchy.

-- John Walch

Wednesday

Twist

The plentiful crowd was enthusiastic and responsive Wednesday night as six teams squared off at Twist for the first night of competition. Unfortunately, most of the first bout teams (Venice Beach, Calif., Mesa, Ariz., and Albuquerque, N.M.) mottled their delivery, obscuring their words in a monotone cascade of unintelligible ranting.

Notable exceptions were June Melby of Venice Beach and individual competitor Al Leston of Jacksonville, Fla. Melby's hilarious ``I' m a Girl'' had both women and men literally singing in support of girl power, and Leston's ``The Grandfather of Us All'' juxtaposed catchy Motown tunes with the dehumanizing aspects of prison life to chilling effect.

However, as engaging as these performers were, the night did not truly begin until the powerhouse triumvirate of Austin, San Francisco and Long Beach, Calif., took the stage. San Francisco's Russell Gonzaga shook with emotion as he spoke of the dangers of living in gang territory. Crystal Waterford of Long Beach hit a home run with her treatise on black power, ``Crystal Star.'' The Austin team shone brightly with its nonstop, in-your-face, down-your-throat deliveries that left the audience gasping their praises and begging for more.

All of the performers were so exceptional that there was only one clear winner: the audience. But the Austin team won the competition.

-- Sonia Montoya

Thursday

Ruta Maya

It's hot and humid in Ruta Maya, and the collective body heat of the audience members packed in the venue add what feels like 10 degrees to the room temperature.

Four-time individual winner and former Boston Globe columnist Patricia Smith is emcee for the bout and gets things started with the whir of blenders and coffee bean grinders serving as background noise. As the poets from Roanoke, Va., San Francisco and Seattle perform, it becomes clear that the judges are very hard to please. Many poets are receiving low scores for poems that the audience enjoys with cheers and applause. The judges who give lower scores are rewarded with boos and hissing, but they remain consistent throughout the bout.

During the third round, the competitive tension mounts when Seattle calls a time out to challenge their score. On the board, their cumulative score is 70.3, but they claim it should be 70.4. After a quick re- count, Seattle is given their due 10th of a point, which could make or break them in the event of a tie. Yet, the Seattle team is not satisfied, because they call another time out during the final round to contest the cumulative score of the Roanoke team.

However, it's a fruitless effort because the Roanoke score is correct. The verbal battle ends with San Francisco winners with 106.5 points, followed by Seattle with 96.6, and Roanoke with 98.4.

-- Shilanda Woolridge

Copyright © 1998, The Austin American-Statesman