National Poetry Slam

What a strange animal is “performance poetry” or “spoken word” or the ubiquitous “poetry slam.” There was a time when, if you got up on a stage and took the mike and told a story, you were a standup comedian. If there was a podium in front of you, and you’d taken a few learned degrees, then you were a poet giving a reading. Well, the eternal frustration of youth (exacerbated by public indifference and institutional favoritism) resulted in the 80s in a real bumrush: Self-styled poets who were wiping themselves with the reams of rejections they were getting from The New Yorker and The Paris Review decided to inject the punk-rock ethos into the dying art of poetry. They stormed the stage with an egg-timer, and the poetry slam was born. Say what you will about the phenomenon—there’s no way around it, you have to take the good with the bad—there is no denying that it’s here to stay. For the first time ever, the National Poetry Slam comes to Minneapolis. Check out the schedule, including slams at Kieran’s, Seventh Street Entry, the Orpheum, Sursumcorda, and several other venues. National Poetry Slam 2002, (612) 822-2500, www.nps2002.com