#I’m bluz guys

[imlitearllybluzlol]

I am literally bluz guys

if you want to disagree then talk to me

[lestatslestits]

You know what? I just got off work and I’m exhausted and grumpy and I’m tired of hearing people shit on slam poetry.

(Note: this isn’t aimed at OP or people in this reblog thread, it’s aimed at people who make fun of slam poetry for being cringey or bad or whatever)

Here’s a history lesson.

Slam poetry was invented by Marc Smith, a Chicago construction worker who wanted to take poetry away from its elitist roots and make it more accessible for people.

And first of all, I’m pretty sure a lot of people who make fun of slam poetry don’t even know what it is. Not every spoken word poem is a slam poem. Slam is a competition, with very specific rules. Slam poems are three minutes or shorter, with a ten second grace period. Any longer than that and you get a time penalty. They are performed in competitions with three rounds. No costumes, no props, no musical accompaniment, just the poet(s) and the mic. Hell. You don’t even need a mic. The poems are judged on a scale of 1 to 10, by five people selected from the audience. The judges do not have to know anything about poetry. That’s part of the process of moving slam away from elitism. The high and low scores for each poem are dropped, and the middle three are added together to get the poet’s score. At the end of the slam scores are tallied to see which poet has the highest score and therefore wins the slam.

Are slam poems sometimes performed at spoken word events? Sure. But a five minute spoken word poem isn’t a slam poem, and an event that isn’t a competition isn’t a poetry slam.

Now. Back to Marc Smith: Fuck Him.

Because he went onstage at CUPSI (The College Union Poetry Slam Invitational) in 2017 and performed poems about how poets who write about their traumas are only trying to win points, and about how attacked he feels as an old white guy, now that the thing he created is predominately owned by people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, disabled people, etc., and how he doesn’t fit in anymore.

And you know what happened? People walked out. Other people stood up and walked to the front of the stage, with their backs to Smith, and crossed their arms over their chests and silently protested him until walked off-stage looking completely ridiculous. And then the competing teams made the decision that instead of competing, they would share the victory and that the competition would end in a draw, with no poems scored on the stage.

Slam poets said Fuck You to the guy who invented slam poetry and told him that it no longer belonged to him as long as he was putting shit like that onstage.

Slam poets are badasses and often minorities, and we actively choose to take poetry back not only from elitist roots, but also from the guy who created us, who gave us a name, when he abandoned us because his creation didn’t suit him anymore.

If you want to hear some amazing slam poets, look up Ed Mabrey, Michael Harriot, Gabe Moses, Bluz, iCON...the list goes on and on.

Support slam poets. Buy their chapbooks and their CDs. Stop making posts about supporting artists and supporting minorities and then making fun of us when we use our voices in a way that you find “cringey” or whatever the fuck.

Okay I’m done.

yall can make fun of slam poems all you want but I’ve never felt more powerful than listening to women yell about their trauma to strangers

[at254usa]

@ghbluz #at254us #norfolk #nightlife #like4follow #clubbing #champagne #chilling #night #smile #music #funtime #guys #ladies #drinks #grill #bar #games @wearmyvest Other than the tickets left at Grannys Houseof Bluz I'm sold out of tickets.. You will be able to pay at the door... Those of you that I am holding a ticket for you must get them by Friday or I'm selling it unless you are one of my outta town folks...Thanks you guys the turn up is about to be so real 😙😙😙😙😙 - (at Granny's House of Blues)