HOT SPRINGS: Words, attitude, ability connect to make poetry slam champion

TRI-LAKES AREA — A world-class field of competitors met in Hot Springs this weekend in an emotional battle that lives up to the name “slam.”

The audience cheered, hissed and stomped their feet, reacting to the rage, sadness and exhilaration of triumph displayed before them. At the end the champion stood alone, victorious, but aware new challengers were already getting in shape for the next time.

This is poetry!

A performance poet known as Rock Baby was named winner of the 2009 Arkansas Poetry Grand Slam Saturday night at the Poet’s Loft, a coffee house, art gallery and performance venue on Central Avenue in Hot Springs. The Texas poet is a former national champion and has appeared on Def Comedy Jam on HBO. He placed second in the 2008 competition.

“This is performance poetry. It’s the spoken word, but with an unconventional delivery,” said Pamela Rawls, who operates the Poet’s Loft and carries the title of Loft Keeper. “These spokenword artists dig deep and take the very best elements of the arts, line break, metaphor and deliver it in a manner that will leave you forever changed. This is poetry on steroids.”

A group of 40 poetry performers from 12 states took part in the two-day slam. They included some of the superstars of poetry competitions, such as Queen Sheba, recording artist and winner of national and international spokenword events and world and national haiku champion Ed Mabrey.

The 2008 Arkansas Grand Slam winner, Joaquin Zihuatanejo, has high praise for the Hot Springs competition.

“The Arkansas Grand Slam is, without question, the most entertaining, engaging and supportive poetry slam that I have ever been a part of,” Zihuatanejo said, “You f ind substance wins here, not style.”

The poets battled head to head Friday night in the preliminary rounds. The top 10 were selected by five randomly selected judges from the audience. They scored each poem and performer on a scale of 0 to 10, as done in many Olympic events. Audience members were then encouraged to express their opinions of the scores and the performance with applause, cheering or booing and other ways to raise the noise level.

“The performances run the gamut of emotions,” Rawls said. “I have heard a lot of anger expressed. It is a way to release,and make your voice heard about anything you feel passionate about.”

On Saturday night those not selected the night before went through a second-chance round and five were selected to join the 10 selected on Friday. Then the final slam began until only Rock Baby remained to win the slam championship and its $1,000 prize.

Before the nightly bouts, the Poet’s Loft hosted several workshops open to the public and performers, One of the highlights of the afternoon meetings was a head-to-head Haiku contest. A haiku is a popular form of poetry from Japan that must be exactly 17 syllables with five in the first line, seven in the next and five in the last line. Rhyming is not required.

“It’s traditional in Japan that the haiku is about the contemplation of nature. Here it can be much different,” Rawls said laughing.

The participants in this unusual literary sport have forged close bonds with each other, Rawls said. “They are competitors, but they all still support and love one another. The Slam is like a big family reunion.”

Begun as a bar game in Chicago in 1986, performance poetry has become popular worldwide. The first White House Poetry Jam featuring past and present national poetry slam artists was hosted by President Barrack Obama in May.

- wbryan@arkansasonline.com

Tri-Lakes, Pages 55 on 11/12/2009

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