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Puerto Rican Poetry: The Poetry Slam
By Pamela Gray

Overview

"When successful, a slam reestablishes in the audience the way of listening that was gradually lost when writing was invented, a process that is repeated in every child as their bedtime stories and poems are silenced when they learn how to read." Gary Mex Glazner acted on his words when he produced and organized the first National Poetry Slam in San Francisco in 1990, thus returning to audience celebration of hearing a poem being read aloud. Since that time, the national contest has grown from a local town competition in Chicago organized by construction worker and poet Marc Smith, to one involving 48 teams from around the country. Sweden, England, Germany, and Israel all host national slams. The Olympics of Poetry--the National Finals were held in Providence in 2000 and Seattle in 2000--hosts teams from every region of the United States, where they perform poems including the decima, a form borrowed from the Puerto Rican pioneers of this performance art.

Decima, corrido, sonnet, or any type of poetry may be featured in a slam competition. As celebrated in Puerto Rico, the decima is the performance poem of choice. Traditional Puerto Rican poetry slams integrate written poetry with the performance of voice, dance and music, and, on any given weekend, a visitor can find a park poetry performance. A Poetry Slam is an all-out competition as grueling as any sporting event. The Nuyorican Poets' Café, while retaining the fierce spirit of competition, holds more "class-room friendly" elements, which this lesson plan expands into an adaptable, multi-disciplinary activity for any grade level. 

Some students are reluctant to write poetry, let alone perform their own work.  This lesson plan suggests ways to facilitate developing a format that will work with even the most reluctant performing student. Alan Ginsberg, when asked about poetry slamming, remarked,  "…It cultivates the field of poetry in every direction and is a healthy mental sport."  Celebrate mental sport by hosting a classroom slam.

Objectives

Students will:

• Exhibit poetry with music, dance, and art in a slam competition.
• Comprehend the complexity and degree of planning needed to create a slam.
• Interpret and synthesize poetry with visual arts to create a presentation.
• Evaluate and respond to student presentations in a slam format.

• Develop interpersonal communication skills by working in pairs and small groups.
• Organize project in a presentation format that meets rubric requirements the class develops.
• Integrate disciplines to create a well-thought out project.
• Expand creativity in approaching poetry and classroom presentations.
• Develop a rubric to judge poetry performance.

Lesson Outline

I. Anticipatory Set

Become familiar with the Poetry Slam, the performance of poetry, and the types of contests offered. Students and teachers can go to http://www.poetryslam.com for the best information on poetry slams.

Then, view the scenes in the movie where Negi "performs" her father's poetry for her counselor.

II. The Poetry Slam

When creating the contest, you should consider the following::

1.   Physical: Is there enough space in the classroom for the presentation, or can you borrow another facility or space for the presentation? Where will the audience sit, and can everyone see the performance? Will performance interfere with any other neighboring classroom activities?

2.  Organization:  Who will be "Olympic style grading spotters"? (See assessment below.) Will guest judges be invited? Will winners from each day challenge each other, or will there be a "winner take all" champion for the entire competition?

3.   Poetry:  In Puerto Rican decima performances, the poet constructs the poem on the spot. The performer is also given the final, rhymed line for the decima, which he or she must use. The final judging score includes how the performer used last line in the context of the poem! Are any students brave enough to try this extemporaneous style of poetry? The Nuyorican slam allows the poet to present previously written poems. This style of slam works best in the classroom.

4. Participation:  As some students will not feel comfortable performing in the competitive slam atmosphere of the slam, you could also group students in sets of four or five, then five each student a specific duty: one artist to organize the graphics or visual aids, one/two performers, one audio specialist to coordinate and organize background sounds, musical performers and/or prerecorded music.

III. Assessment

You can use any of the poetry evaluation guidelines developed in state frameworks to assess this project. Depending on time constraints, you could also ask students to develop their own rubric and guidelines—the most effective way to evaluate this assignment--after they have viewed or read the text of several slams. The following three rubrics vary in the amount of feedback they offer the performers, from a minimal "thumbs up/we liked it" to an elaborate one that asks the audience a series of questions to evaluate the production.  Depending on the weight of the assignment, you could use any or all of the rubrics.

1.  (Immediate Evaluation) The Olympic Style Rubric

a.   Have students review the basic objectives of the assignment.  Before slamming, the class should develop a consensus (or, you could mandate) on the following questions.

You can hold a Grand Slam Final of Poetry during a class, between classes of various periods, or you could have the champion meet other champions from other teacher's classes or schools. The National Poetry Slam uses this format for judging. You can find their precise and lengthy rules can be on their web site (see additional resources section for address).

2.  Other Evaluation Rubrics

a.   (Delayed Evaluation) The Quick Comment Rubric

This rubric offers a quick performance, a rapid 1 - 5 rating, but also provides performers a written commentary on the best element of the performance and the element that the viewer thought might be changed to improve the performance. 

b.   (Lengthy Evaluation) The Detailed Rubric

This works best if slam participants are presenting the same type of poem.  You could give a detailed rubric, similar to the ones for the decima and corrido poetry forms on this web site, to individual students to evaluate each performance.  While answering the performers' questions as to why a group may not have placed in the competition, this rubric also reduces the spontaneity and excitement of the contest. Thus, students could best use it in a final or semi-final round, after preliminary slams where they use a Quick Comment or Olympic Style rubric. This type of rubric reinforces concepts for poetry evaluation of the International Baccalaureate Writing Examination and Advanced Placement testing.

Suggested Related Works

Nuyorican Poetry Movement

Celebrating 25 years of the poetry slam, the Nuyorican Poets' Café celebrates its status as movement's pioneer. While other cafes have come and gone in a relatively short time, the Nuyorican continues to hold weekend events. 

Books. The earliest books by the founders of the movement include:

Algarin, Miguel & Miguel Piñero, eds.  Nuyorican Poetry: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Words and Feelings. New York:  Morrow, 1975.Pioneering work by Nuyorican poet documenting beginning of movement.

Algarin, Miguel & Bob Holman, eds. Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café.  New York:  Henry Holt and Co., 1994.  Text is a collection of street-wise artists of the Nuyorican poetry movement.

Web Sites. The following offer up-to-date trends in performance poetry.  See also Listen Up ! below for additional contemporary works:

http://www.boricua.com/newyork/wwwboard/wwwboard.html
WWW Nuyoricans Board Vaya. Moderated bilingual board gives sample poetry, extended discussions regarding Nuyorican vs. Puerto Rican vs. black culture in the United States, as well as updates on the annual New York City Puerto Rican Cultural Parade.

Additional Resources

The Poetry Slam

Anglesey, Zoe, ed. Listen Up! Spoken Word Poetry. New York:  Ballentine/One World Publishers, 1999.
Foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa. Comprehensive collection of poets and poems of the new spoken word movement.  Discography, film, and video bibliography provide sources for classroom use.

Glazner, Gary Mex, ed. Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry. San Francisco: Manic  Press, 2000.

http://www.poetryslam.com
 The official Poetry Slam web site, where you can find official rules

Interdisciplinary Links

Drama/Speech/Stage Craft:  The National Slam has competitions for individuals and groups. Although, groups of purists within the slam movement would discourage integrating theater arts with spoken word performances, doing so may work best for your classroom. You may use formats borrowed from reader's theater for the slam and add assignments for oral interpretation and presentation of the poems and stage blocking to the slam evaluation rubrics.

Fine Arts:  Although the national slam competition does not allow costumes or sets, many local slams encourage participants to dress and bring their own props.

Cinema/Animation:  "Slam Nation" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998. Paul Devlin's film recorded the national competition of 1996 in Portland, Oregon. Film classes could conduct their own interviews of school participants. Animation students could create short subject films that visually interpret the poetry of the slam.

Pamela L. Gray is Director of The Gray Areas of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and created both the lesson and the rubrics.