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Read This Book out Loud: a Review of Young Adult Works by Artists from the Poetry Slam Community

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Read This Book out Loud: a Review of Young Adult Works by Artists from the Poetry Slam Community Adam Henze Read This Book Out Loud: A Review of Young Adult Works by Artists from the Poetry Slam Community henever I find myself standing in front slam community was influential in helping me de- of a cafeteria or gymnasium filled with velop a moral compass as a young person. Slam was W hundreds of secondary students, my arms my first introduction to multiculturalism and cultural spread wide like I’m suspended on a high dive, I competency. It was also one of my first experiences always think about how badly I needed a good poet with critical citizenship because poetry let me imag- in my life when I was 14. Instead, I learned to write ine the various ways I could change the world. Most by carving on my arm with twisted staples. I learned important, slam reinforced a notion in me that the to speak by shrieking obscenities at my teachers. The language I use has an impact on others and conse- first day I can remember not wanting to die came a quences for myself. couple years later when I was introduced to a book Since Aloud’s publication in 1994, numerous called Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poet’s Café educators have recognized the immediate benefits (Algarín & Holman, 1994). For many spoken-word en- of introducing performance poetry in the classroom thusiasts around the world, the phonebook-sized tome (Holbrook & Salinger, 2006), particularly noting the of poems was the first glimpse at a radical new vehicle medium’s ability to engage reluctant readers (Low, for performance art called poetry slam. Emotional 2011). Despite the increased desire to use the spoken and raw, with content ranging anywhere between word in classroom settings, many educators outside confessional testimonials, political assaults, raunchy the slam community are uncertain how to introduce stand-up comedy, and hip-hop holler-if-you-hear-me poetry into their lesson plans beyond playing a short flows, the poetry chronicled in Aloud reinvigorated a video or inviting a practitioner like myself to class public interest in performed verse (Kaufman, 1999). A for a one-time performance. The blame need not rest large part of that public interest was reflected in kids solely on the shoulders of uninformed secondary like me (Weiss & Herndon, 2001). When I was 16, I teachers; although slam academics have approached stopped writing drafts of my suicide note and I started spoken word as a writing pedagogy (Fisher, 2007) writing poems. and a performance pedagogy (Sibley, 2001), there has Those are the memories I think about now, 15 been relatively little discussion on how slam as a read- years later, when I’m rapid-fire whipping words at ing pedagogy fits into the holistic trifecta known as crowds of school kids. I became the poet that a young spoken word pedagogy. me needed, a move similarly made by hundreds of In the forward of Aloud, coeditor Bob Holmon artists who’ve transitioned from the slam scene to the declares, “DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. You don’t have to. classroom (as educators, academics, guest performers, This book reads you. This book is a SHOUT for all those and mentors). Moreover, the poetry I heard from the who have heard the poem’s direct flight from mouth 68 HE EVIEW T ALAN R Winter 2017 k68-78-ALAN-Winter16/17.indd 68 2/4/17 11:02 AM to ear. Hear this book with your eyes! When the Themes Shared by Slam and Young Mouth marries the Eye, the Ear officiates” (p. 1). This Adult Literature self-professed “invocation” points to spoken word’s ability to transcend the page. While many slammers Many educators mistakenly refer to slam as a genre, record their work on audio or video in lieu of the tra- when in fact it is more of a mechanism. In 1986, ditional print medium, educators would be surprised a Chicago construction worker named Marc Smith to learn how many notable artists have published decided to drastically change the way we experience their poems in literary journals, anthologies, and as poetry. Academic practices collected works on small and large presses (Somers- such as New Criticism had Willett, 2009). And although proponents of New alienated casual patrons When I was 16, I stopped Literacy Studies commonly use the audiovisual work of performed verse (Gioia, writing drafts of my of slammers to meet newly imposed digital literacy 1991), and Smith fought standards (Brawley, 1994; Harlan, 2008), nearly every back by devising a populist suicide note and I started practitioner from the slam community with whom I contest where competing have collaborated insistently uses textual analysis as poets faced off in front writing poems. part of his or her spoken word pedagogy. Just because of rowdy blue-collar bar the works are multimodal does not mean that the patrons (Smith & Kraynak, print form needs to be excluded (Michael, 2001). 2004). Some audience members were given score Understandably, this textual barrier has resulted cards to judge each performance, while others were in a low number of opportunities for slammers to encouraged to cheer for the poets they loved and boo create age-appropriate literature ideal for use in the poets they did not. Though it began as a quirky classroom reading instruction. By reviewing a few game in an Uptown pub, poetry slam exploded into a examples of print-based literature from the slam com- worldwide literary movement in the mid-nineties after munity written specifically for young adult audiences, it garnered the attention of mainstream entities such this article hopes to serve as an initial effort to discuss as MTV, Lollapalooza, NPR, and HBO (Aptowicz, how the reading component of spoken word pedagogy 2008). More notable, teens around the world came to connects with writing and discussion. In an attempt embrace slam as a powerful avenue for self-expression to create a familiar ground for instructors of literacy, (Erlich, 1999). I draw comparisons between poetry from the slam Since scholars are at odds regarding whether slam circuit and common conventions found in young adult competitions have spawned an actual genre known literature. By identifying the similarities between spo- as slam poetry, many proponents such as myself use ken word pedagogy and pedagogies typically associ- the terms slam, spoken word, and performance poetry ated with young adult literature, I hope to give literacy interchangeably. The mainstream appropriation of the educators a foothold for approaching slam through underground art form has spawned some misconcep- typical means, such as textual analysis, group discus- tions about what slam actually is; I will attempt to sion, and short written responses. clarify some misunderstandings in the next section. This literature review also serves as a resource Regardless, although slam can be difficult to catego- for educators who want exposure to more artists from rize or place into an easy-to-describe box, educators the slam community. I include brief suggestions for who have used poetry from the slam community in Secondary English Language Arts educators and read- the classroom have found it to be an ideal way for ing specialists about various ways that the featured young people to vocalize themes related to character texts can be incorporated into curricula. It is my hope and ethicality (Bruce & Davis, 2000). that the selected YA texts demonstrate various ways Considering that spoken word has reached young that poetry can spawn critical classroom conversations readers from countless backgrounds and cultures regarding morality, citizenship, and cultural compe- (Poole, 2007), it is not surprising that poetry used in tency. slam shares numerous conventions with the charac- teristics of young adult literature. By establishing such 69 HE EVIEW T ALAN R Winter 2017 k68-78-ALAN-Winter16/17.indd 69 2/4/17 11:02 AM connections, educators should feel empowered to study, participants in a youth writing group in the draw upon familiar aspects of their instructional skill Bronx claimed they adopted a “blues singer identity” set to form their own unique methodology for reading (Fisher, 2007). In both studies, groups of young learn- the poetry of slammers in classroom settings. ers from diverse backgrounds used identities con- First, poetry slam’s initial aim was to reject the structed in the writing process to form a familial bond, cryptic nature of academic verse by crafting lyrical thus developing a literacy community. content that utilizes “common language” more famil- Third, similar to the many popular “socially iar to everyday audiences (Ellis, Gere, & Lamberton, aware” young adult novels, a substantive number 2003). In a 1988 New York of slammers use spoken word as a way to address Times article—one of the critical issues that affect their local and global com- first major newspapers to munities (Stovall, 2006). Ingalls (2012) explains, “The By establishing such cover the then-new slam spoken-word venue becomes a forum in which partici- connections, educators thing—Marc Smith fa- pants assert and defend the legitimacy of their social mously quipped “Hifalutin and political views, and the audience is a critical should feel empowered metaphors got no place component in the exchange of ideas; their responses here” (Johnson, 1988). Bob to the messages they see and hear help to spark and to draw upon familiar Holman echoed Smith’s sustain dialogue, and to validate the voices of youth” aspects of their cry, claiming that slam (p. 101). In their own study, Bruce and Davis noticed began as an attempt to a commonality in the background knowledge of their instructional skill set to return written verse back students: teens in the classroom were familiar with to community spaces by both the conventions of hip-hop and the grim realities form their own unique “mak[ing] poetry as natural of systemic violence (2000).
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