A poetry slam is also an artiface. It’s just a competition thrown over the top of a poetry reading. It satisfies an ancient addiction to conflict. It’s the emotional rollercoaster of story. We want to watch heroes rise. We feel heartbroken when they fall.
Slam poetry is an excellent guide for those who want to learn how to participate in Slam poetry competitions and for those who want to teach it.
Broken down into easy to navigate chapters, Miles Merrill and Narcisa Nozica make the concept of performance poetry accessible to all.
There are some great chapters on the skill of writing and various suggestions on how to make your writing not only stand out from the crowd but also make the crowd feel the emotion you want them to.
Slam poetry competitions are a great way to involve community and give people – namely students in my eyes – the feeling that they can be creative and they can express their ideas through words in a fun and engaging way.
Part 3 of this book is a great tool for teachers. Suggestions on how to teach Slam poetry are outlined, examples are given, games are suggested and teaching tools are spread about. Any teacher with some confidence could pick this up and potentially start a Slam poetry club and through the help of Part 1 – run a competition!
Poetry is often frowned upon by young people and often seen as boring and meaningless. But Slam poetry – bring it on!
After reading this book I am very inspired to get something up and running this year or in the future, but I also hope that this review inspires some others to have a look too.
