I went to a poetry SLAM
First got caught in a traffic jam.
It was like being on a blind date
But after some slamming, I found my soul mate
Not a person, but entertainment
It was like I'd been locked in containment.
The words used made my mind rush and heart full.
But oh no! They thought it'd be funny to try and get me on stage with a pull.
I said, "There is no way you'll get me up there."
Compared to them my talent would only be appreciated at a poetry slam day care!
It's like they'd be using the big kid's toilet and I'd still be on the potty chair.
OK, OK, so I may not be a slammer yet, but the Lansing Poetry SLAM! event I attended was intriguing enough to make anyone give slamming a try.
Poetry slams are competitions developed by street poets as a way to force them to push and develop their skills.
In Lansing, the poetry slam movement is still in its infancy. But thanks to groups like the Lansing Civic Players (LCP), it's growing.
LCP has designed a newer, friendlier version—monthly Lansing Poetry SLAM! events—to engage Capital region poets and build their presence.
Emerging Scene
"As of now, I would think that the scene is still in emerging mode" says Marcus McKissic, emcee of the LCP's Poetry SLAM! event. "It needs a venue that is willing to call it home and promote it as such for it to catch on."
Anyone can compete in one of the Lansing Poetry SLAM! events. Participants recite one slam, and volunteer audience judges rate the slam based on content and performance. The winner gets $50 and an LCP mug.
The rest of the night is not a competition; it's just a place to showcase the talent. The LCP Underground performing space—with its low lighting, single stool and microphone—make it more intimate that standard slams, giving even the most nervous poet the confidence to get up and display his or her talent.
"The underground poetry scene is one that is always emerging, but has never really caught on yet. There have been people that have kept it breathing such as the Nu Poets, and Spitfire Poetry, so there is definitely a need for it in the Lansing Area," McKissic says.
Soft Slamming
LCP's Poetry SLAM! hooked everyone from teens to adults. Talented 16-year-old poet Mackenzie Lemieux-Potter, who is also McKissic's sister-in-law, read a few of her witty and inspiring works.
"It's really a great experience when people get together and read," Lemieux-Potter says. "It's like seeing into someone's life at times and you experience so many things. It's kind of like having your own little poetry family."
At Poetry SLAM! any topic is fair game: love, heartbreak . . . cotton.
Poet Sineh Wurie went after whimsical summer cotton with his poem, "Sundress."
"The kinds of topics I focus on would be love," Wurie states. "It seems that I am a hopeless romantic and I am always falling in and out of it."
Lemieux-Potter says slamming gives her a reprieve from teenage life.
"I write about all different topics really,” she says. “Writing has always been a way to express my emotion so a lot of my poems are about my feelings on things that have happened. As a teenager, a lot of those things are bad relationships or first kiss, but some of them have to do with not so teenager things, like death or pain.”
Building a Community
McKissic's wife, Tiffany Lemieux-McKissic, is also a talented poet and agrees that the Lansing poetry scene has become more popular, but that it happens in cycles.
"The poetry scene in Lansing seems to be an ebb and flow," she says. "There are seasons of great activity and then there are periods of hibernation. I think Robert Busby's tragic death and the temporary closing of the Creole Gallery definitely set off a chain reaction of poetry hibernation in Lansing," she suggests. "The truth is that it takes a tremendous amount of commitment and energy to keep the scene vital and fresh and to attract new talent and a loyal audience."
The poetry scene's popularity seems to be on the rise at the moment. The Lansing Poetry SLAM! debut in 2009 was well received and demonstrated a growing need for poetic outlets.
"There are tons of people that come to open mics and poetry events just to listen and these people love to hear the wisdom or calamity or passion that is in poetry," says McKissic. "It provides for another form of nightly entertainment that doesn't require dressing up or drinking alcohol necessarily."
Poetry venues in the Capital region are slim to nonexistent. But the LCP Underground is doing its part to help be a venue that caters to the poetry scene. The LCP Underground hosts Poetry SLAM! once a month, and upcoming dates are March 5 and April 2. For more information about dates/times, click
here.
"One day there will be a venue that can match itself with a dedicated host, possibly provide a budget for advertising and that will be the day that the poetry scene will break out of ‘emerging mode’ and evolve into the form of entertainment it is destined to be," McKissic says.
There are other events in Lansing and East Lansing that showcase poetry talent. East Lansing's SCENE Metrospace hosts an event called SpitFire. Advocacy, Re-entry, Resources and Outreach (AARO) also hosts an Prison Poetry Reading where people read poems written by Michigan inmates.
"Poetry serves a very important purpose and will never completely fade out. I wish that Lansing had a stronger scene, but I understand the amount of time and energy that goes into it," Lemieux-McKissic says.
Look for open mic nights and coffee shops and clubs around town.
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Clare Zammitt is a professional writing student at Michigan State University.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Tiya Kunaiyi patiently reads her poems
Poet “Logic” hosts at Scene Metrospace
A poet at a Scene Metrospace
Melissa Dey Hasbrook reads at Scene Metrospace
“Logic” reads a poem
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie