Story & Poetry Slams: 5-Step Evolution of Art

Storytelling and poetry have existed for centuries and now these art forms have evolved into something more intense and lively. Story slams and poetry slams outreach mainly to high school students and college-aged adults, though all ages, cultures and races participate.

My inner radar sounded off when I first heard these evolved art forms. I anxiously attended a poetry slam workshop/contest led by Tracie Morris and Jean Howard at the 9^th Annual Great Salt Lake Book Festival on October 28, 2006. Tracie and Jean shared the basic format of a poetry slam. I searched other sources to find what aspects are common.

Format of Story Slam/Poetry Slam (may differ from event to event)—

1. Anyone Can Share Poem/Story
2. No Props or Costumes
3. Five Judges from the Audience and/or Pre-determined Panel
4. Time Limit
5. Audience Reactions

Anyone Can Share Poem/Story
All are welcomed to perform and so all types of genres are shared—tall tales, legends, scary stories, romances, hip-hop, social injustices, and the list goes on. Events may censor what can be shared, though most tend to be open to any theme, expression, or style. Some slams may not be appropriate for children 12 years of age and younger.

How is a slam different from an open mike? A slam’s first priority is to the needs of the audience. An open mike is seen as a network of supporters for the artist.

Marc Smith noticed that some open mikes needed a breath of life into them as some participants droned on without connecting to the audience. Marc partnered with Dave Jemilo, owner of a Chicago jazz club called the Green Mill; they created the Uptown Poetry Slam held every Sunday night ever since July 25, 1986. Now, the Green Mill is known as the Mecca of Poetry Slam.

Slams occur mostly in taverns and coffee shops, though other venues sponsor these contests such as festivals, bookstores, libraries, and even Humanities classes. The Ruth Lilly Hoosier Storytelling Festival in Indianapolis had their 3^rd Annual Story Slam in October 2006 and awarded $100 to first place and $50 to second place.

No Props or Costumes
Though I have not seen why props and costumes are discouraged, I suspect it is so the audience can focus on the words and the performance. Perhaps another reason would be that props and costumes might give unfair advantage to participants.

Five Judges from the Audience and/or Pre-determined Panel
Random selection from the audience can give anyone a chance to be a judge. No previous experience in judging is necessary. Jean Howard suggests that a pro slam poet gives the first performance, drawing hearty response from the audience, so that the judges can practice giving scores. Of course, this can calm—or terrify—the amateur slam poets.

Poetry slams have either a 0-to-10 scale or a 1-to-10 scale (with 0 or 1 being low). Rarely are perfect 10s given. Out of the five judges’ scores, the highest score and the lowest score are dropped. The three remaining scores are totaled so that the contestant receives a grand total of 0 to 30 points.

Tracie Morris confessed that some slam poets have the performance skills but lack the quality in the poem itself. Judges may let some less-than-desirable pieces slide due to stage presence, though contestants should not expect this to always be the case. There is no telling what piece will grab the judges. What can win in one round may stink in another round.

The Ruth Lilly Hoosier Storytelling Festival’s Story Slam prefers to have a pre-determined panel that includes professional storytellers, teachers, and students. Scorecards are divided into five main categories—

1. Presentation Skills
2. Creativity
3. Staying within Time Limit
4. Audience Applause/Approval
5. Story has Beginning, Middle and End

After the event, contestants receive copies of the evaluation forms.

Time Limit
More people can participate when there are time limits. According to Poetry Slam Inc. and the National Poetry Slam, each person has a three-minute limit with a ten second grace period. As for Story Slams, the tales should stay under five minutes. Any second over the allotted time and points are deducted from the judges’ scores.

Audience Reactions
Jean Howard said that when she acts as emcee for a slam, she teaches the audience how to react. She practices with them on how to boo, hiss, and stomp feet. This way, the audience will be more vocal and bring more excitement to the event. Applause may be a rarity.

Tracie Morris noticed, “Sometimes the best response is for people to not like your work.” Difficult or controversial themes are often unleashed. Perhaps the performer’s intent is to have the audience react, despite if the reaction is positive or negative.

Regardless of themes, audiences interpret your body language. Tracie pointed out that doing a particular gesture once, like throwing down your fist, might be more powerful than if done repeatedly.

Beyond gestures, Tracie likes to take out the rhyme in her poems to see if she still likes her work. Tracie warned, “After the 15^th person uses rhyme, the audience gets fatigue.”

Audience fatigue can be avoided if a poet/storyteller develops writing skills. Tracie stressed that you “learn how to write well by reading.” Books keep you well versed in ideas so you can create your own ideas. Plus, reading may inspire which lines of poetry—or parts of a story—you may want to prioritize.

If you want to be part of a story/poetry slam—whether as performer, judge, emcee, or audience—most likely there is an event in your neighborhood or nearby city.

As for Salt Lake City, you can go to a poetry slam at A Cup of Joe’s on 353 West 200 South every Saturday at 8:00pm. I met some people who would love to have storytellers so you may find that a poetry slam can be a story slam and a story slam can be a poetry slam.

On a grander scale, you can go to the 2007 St. Louis National Storytelling Conference for its Story Slam or to the 2007 National Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas.

The final step of the evolving art of storytelling and poetry may be the time when those two art forms become one.

Until we tell again,

Rachel Hedman
Professional Storyteller
Co-Chair of Youth, Educators, and Storytellers Alliance
(801) 870-5799
rachel@storytellingadventures.com
http://www.rachelhedman.com
http://www.yesalliance.com

Memory Madness: 3 Ways to Invent Personal Stories

Some storytellers work like mad scientists as they piece the story of their lives with a brain here and a piece of plumbing there. Finally, they search for the ever-needed bolt of lightning to spark the creation to life.

Our lives have so much adventure to them that rarely should we exaggerate our experiences. Yet, some people feel that is exactly what they must do. Perhaps they would change their minds if they attended “The Fertile Field of Memories: A Panel on Writing the Memoir” as part of the 9^th Annual Great Salt Lake Book Festival on October 28, 2006.

All four people on the panel—Phyllis Barber, Betsy Burton, Rev. France Davis, and Rita Williams—published their own memoirs and shared insights so that others could delve into their own experiences. (See bio info on panel members below.)

Phyllis provided a structure that the others could comment on. The three most important concepts I received:

1. Look at an Angle
2. Remember the Senses
3. Create Distance

Look at an Angle

Often storytellers are tempted to share everything about their lives. The descriptions of a particular chair sometimes last for minutes and the listeners have not connected why this chair is so important. The glazed-eyes look could indicate the listeners’ boredom.

Rather than sharing everything, come up with one to two angles. Anything more could confuse—or worse—bore your listeners.

Phyllis says a question she asks herself is “What do you want to gain in writing you story?” This question can also apply to performing. If you can answer this question, then you may have a better idea of what angle you should take.

Or you may be like Rev. France Davis where he takes chapters 62 and 63 of his book “France Davis: An American Story Told” to go over the same incident through two different pairs of eyes.

Could you see this as an interesting storytelling technique? Rita prefers to “write for the voice that couldn’t speak.” Usually we know what happened to us, but what would a family member, a friend, a stranger, say about the same incident?

Remember the Senses

This step you may be pulling your hair out of your head if you have a bad memory. As for me, rarely do I remember anything beyond the action.

One must almost run their life’s history as if it was a movie. Can you remember the weather? Lighting? Landscape? Phyllis says that, whenever possible, try to visit the place involved with your story. Space can affect your feelings and landmarks can influence you.

Due to my frustrations of my puny mind, I asked this question of the panel: How much do you leave to your memory for the story and how much do you research to aide your personal story?

Rev. France Davis said that he trusts to 95% of memory. For his book, he had someone interview him, had it recorded, and then transcribed. The interviewer could ask questions to delve into the details so that the interviewer’s experience would interface with that of the Reverend.

Betsy also said she mostly wrote from memory while Phyllis shared that she would check newspapers to check on details. Phyllis noticed that she would get some things wrong. She then had to decide which “truth” to go with—hers or the newspapers.

Rev. France Davis said he had “memories that didn’t happen when it actually happened.” He remembered his parents running a store while he was a kid. He discovered through his siblings that this store was out of business before he was born. He smiled and said, “There are always others who help you on the way.”

Rita had an amazing resource to jumpstart her memory: her diary. She had written in it since she was 11 years old. Some sentences were a little confusing and had to be interpreted such as “wore new socks to school” or “the dog got hit by a skunk.”

Create Distance

Usually, if we still cannot seem to shape the story, it is probably because we are too close to the story. Phyllis warns, “Truth disappears when too close to it.”

When you have control of your emotions, then you can look at the surroundings of the story. A line in a journal could really be referring to something else. Look to the background of the story for, as Rita says, “Truth lies in the background.”

You may want to write the thoughts you remember in a notebook/journal and then come back to the story a week, a month, a year, or even a decade later. Your mind will be clear and you may remember things you did not remember the first time.

Regardless of the results, Phyllis knows you “can chase your story for years . . ..” Mad scientists are able to shout victory and laugh uncontrollably when, after much struggle and experimentation, the creation comes.

Your personal stories can come to life, too.

Meet the Panel:

Betsy Burton—moderator of the panel and continues to be an independent bookstore owner for over 30 years called The King’s English located in Salt Lake City.

Phyllis Barber—author of “How I Got Cultured: a Nevada Memoir”, which won the 1991 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Prize for Creative Nonfiction and the 1993 Award for Best Autobiography from the Association of Mormon Letters. She can trace her family history to Nevada to the 1860s.

Rev. France Davis—pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church of Salt Lake City and creator of “France Davis: An American Story Told”—He calls himself a storyteller, especially since his book came from an interview that was recorded and transcribed.

Rita Williams—author of “If the Creek Don’t Rise: My Life out West with the Last Black Widow of the Civil War”. When she was four, her mother died in a Denver boarding house and the author was left in the care of her Aunt Daisy, the last surviving African American widow of a Union soldier.

Until we tell again,

Rachel Hedman
Professional Storyteller
Co-Chair of Youth, Educators, and Storytellers Alliance
(801) 870-5799
rachel@storytellingadventures.com
http://www.rachelhedman.com/

Imagination: 2 Ways to Zap Creativity into Kids

Zap! Click! Are those sounds heard in your living room as the children flip through television channels?

If your answer is yes, then your home is not the only one with these noises.

We are in a media-oriented age. Though we have gained much knowledge from technology, one thing that we are losing is our imagination.

A Kindergarten teacher recently invited me to tell at her school this December. She remembered decades ago when radio programs were popular and she could create images in her head from the stories. The narrator introduced characters and settings in such a way that one listener may see a brown-eyed heroine in their mind while another person may see a blue-eyed heroine. She expected children listening at a storyteller’s feet would have the same affect as the radio program.

Besides this teacher, even children are recognizing that something fading from their minds. While in the theatre watching a movie based on a book, a child sitting next to me said, “The movie ruined the picture in my head. I can’t remember the picture anymore.” I waited to hear the dad respond, but he said nothing.

Parents, teachers, and adults can direct children in certain activities, such as the two I suggest, so that statements of lost imaginations disappear.

1. Play Storytelling Games
2. Share Bedtime Stories

Play Storytelling Games--

Stretch the dormant imagination muscles in the mind through active games. A storytelling game promotes creativity and develops speaking and/or listening skills. A video game tends to lack these elements.

Some exciting games can be found in “Raising Voices: Creating Youth Storytelling Groups and Troupes” co-authored by Kevin Cordi and Judy Sima. One example is “Academy Awards Acceptance Speech”. Haven’t we all wondered what we would say to millions of people when we received “Best Picture”? Now you do not have to wait for that moment.

The parent can call out their child’s name, mention which Academy award was given. You can even make it more realistic by having an envelope and maybe even a trophy. The child walks to the front of the room, and then is directed on how to react. Emotions of happiness, surprise, or even sadness could be suggested. The child gives a short speech of why it was an honor or who inspired them. The parent must remember to applaud afterward. Then the parent and child can switch roles.

Many more games are in the book that will work for different ages. Though I find games that engage elementary-aged kids will amuse college students and so on. Storytelling games were almost always played at our weekly gatherings for the Brigham Young University Storytelling Club. I noticed that our shy members at the beginning of the semester soon became more expressive by the end of the semester.

Play hard and play often. The youth you see with me at the top of this message are ones who know how to have fun through use of use gestures, facial expressions, and body language. Anyone could get a physical as well as a mental workout. Can television offer such a reward?

When night comes, your imagination will be warmed up through playing games that the next step of telling bedtime stories will be easy.

Share Bedtime Stories--

Reading books to children is important though I encourage you to tell stories without the books every so often. If you are unsure what to tell a story about, then ask questions that the children answer.

A dialogue could go something like this--

Parent: Once upon a time there was a what?

Child: Uh, a princess.

Parent: Okay, so once upon a time there was a princess who liked to. . .(while looking at the child)

Child: She liked to blow bubbles.

--and so on and so forth.

As you get more practice, then you can do what I like to do. I ask for three things/nouns the listener wants in the story. My college roommates would ask for bedtime stories and I honored their requests. One night they wanted a story with the following: prince, princess, and flying carpet. I could have easily told “Aladdin” though I decided to have fun, take risks, and tell a story from the flying carpet’s point of view.

Regardless of how you tell the stories, you will find these moments precious. I recommend you write at least some of these creations, if not all, for family history before you fall asleep that night.

The two steps of playing storytelling games and sharing bedtime stories will succeed when you are involved. Though a child may play games on their own, they will not be as excited as when you join them. When it comes to bedtime stories, you act as a model of how to expand the imagination.

Zap! Click! These can be sounds heard within your child’s mind as creativity sparks and stories form.

Until we tell again,

Rachel Hedman
Professional Storyteller
Co-Chair of Youth, Educators, and Storytellers Alliance
(801) 870-5799
rachel@storytellingadventures.com
http://www.rachelhedman.com/
http://www.yesalliance.com/