July 09, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Slam dunk

by Cross Missakian

I t's kind of like ice skating or gymnastics. After a short performance, the crowd hoots and applauds in appreciation. Within moments, the judges post their scores on a scale of one to 10, but the highest and lowest don't count. The next contender steps up, hoping to do even better. By the conclusion of the event, a few competitors have earned a trip to nationals.

But this isn't a qualifying event for the Olympics. It's a poetry slam, and it happens all the time in Palo Alto.

Poetry slams are raucous competitions that try to bring poetry into the mainstream by exciting and involving audiences. They began in Chicago in the early 1980s, and have become such a phenomenon that this August 400 poets from teams representing 80 cities will compete at the National Poetry Slam in St. Louis, Mo. And thanks to the efforts of five local poets, Palo Alto will be represented at nationals this year for the first time.

On July 25 there will be a send-off show at Art21 to prepare the team for nationals, and then a hiatus until September, when the regular slam schedule resumes.

According to member Melissa Rose, the young Palo Alto team is still trying to find its sound, but has found strength in its diversity. Her own poetry often addresses her family, women's issues and the "suburban mentality" of her native Palo Alto.

Fellow member Nate Hawkins draws on a very different background. As a hospital security guard, he has wrestled a razor away from a suicidal man, and encountered pre-pubescent drug addicts. Such experiences were pent up inside him until he discovered slam poetry last year. Now, they are the basis of some of his most popular poems.

Hawkins, who is new to poetry and attended half a dozen slams before he summoned the courage to take the stage, admitted that he badly wanted to beat out others and make the team.

"It's absolutely very competitive, people want to win," said Dufflyn Lammers, a former Palo Alto resident who has been featured on HBO's Def Poetry Jam. She added that the stakes are higher than just personal or regional pride.

"Now, slammers are getting the kind of media attention and corporate sponsorship that makes this a career option," Lammers said.

Palo Alto, like most slams, has some regular poets but invites anyone to show up and perform with a prepared piece of work (registration closes at show time or when 12 poets have signed up). The eclectic crowd usually ranges from 30 to 75 people and includes some folks who just happen to be out for a Sunday evening stroll.

"We get Stanford students, and we get plumbers," said team member and co-founder Lee Knight, Jr.

Surprisingly, poetry slams are quite regimented. Each performer has three minutes, with points deducted for going over. Music and props are not allowed, the poetry must be original, and the judges are always pulled from the audience just before show time.

"There are a lot of rules, but they exist largely so you don't bore people," Knight said.

Slammers throughout the world adhere to the same rules so they are prepared for regional, national and international competitions.

The audience-as-judges policy contributes to both the unpredictability and participation that have made poetry slams so popular.

"The beauty of slam is you don't know who's going to be the judge," Hawkins said. "I've brought tears to some people, and other times I've been outscored by people who broke character and forgot their lines."

Knight, Jr., a Palo Alto resident and open mic veteran, traveled to the national slam competition in Chicago last year as a member of San Jose's team. After talking to poets from around the Bay Area, he decided Palo Alto should have a slam and a team of its own.

Knight teamed up with Rose, a 2002 graduate of Palo Alto High School he knew through slam. Together, they organized and hosted the first Palo Alto slam last October, and since April have held slams every other Sunday at Palo Alto's Art 21 gallery.

Poet and actress Lammers, a 1988 graduate of Gunn High School, has participated in the national poetry slam with teams from Georgia and southern California. She met Knight at last year's national competition, and was thrilled he was starting a slam in her hometown. Lammers now lives in Los Angeles, but in May she traveled to Palo Alto to appear as a guest host and poet.

"For me to see it open up in Palo Alto, I just thought it was wonderful. Especially because the city is so literate," she said.

Lammers bought her first poetry book at the Printer's Ink bookstore.

"I was broken up over some boy and bought a book called 'Against Romance,' and I started writing poetry. So for me, hosting a slam in Palo Alto was like coming full circle," she said.

Despite the intense competition, poets from around the world forge close relationships through slams. At one event, Knight met a man from Germany, which led to Knight and Rose embarking on a 40-day poetry tour of that country last year. After hosting the Palo Alto team in southern California, and bringing her team up to Palo Alto, Lammers, who no longer has family here, considers the Palo Alto slam a home away from home.

That's the kind of connection Hawkins would like to make in St. Louis.

"There are going to be slam masters from all over the country, and maybe they can expand the places where you can perform," he said.

In recent weeks, the Palo Alto team -- which consists of Knight, Rose, Hawkins, Matt Pignotti and Karuna Tanahashi -- has competed at different legs of the Battle of the Bay, a series of slams which will ultimately crown a Bay Area champion. They have also traveled to the Southwest Slam in Albuquerque, N.M., where they faced nationally ranked teams from around the country and finished ahead of San Jose, the best team on the West Coast.

"It was a really strong showing for us," Knight said. "We came out of nowhere, and the veterans were telling each other they had to check us out."

Knight and Rose have ambitious plans for the Palo Alto slam. They would like to start a slam league among the local high schools, and are working with boys and girls clubs to get younger children involved. A few weeks ago, they performed on the street at the Palo Alto farmers' market to "bring slam to the masses."

In the shorter term though, the focus is on nationals. Rose thinks the team has a great chance to do well, but said it's most important for team members to grow as artists.

"I think if we do that, success will come," she said.

There is also the thorny issue of raising money for the trip. St. Louis is a long way, Knight said, "and we'd rather fly than drive."

What: An evening of slam poetry, featuring a Send-Off to Nationals show for Team Palo Alto

Where: Art 21, 539 Alma St. (corner of Hamilton Avenue) in Palo Alto

When: July 25. Doors open at 7:15 p.m.; show begins at 8 p.m.

Cost: Tickets are $5 general admission; $3 for students with IDs.

Info: Please visit www.paloaltoslam.com or call (650) 326-9108.

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