Slam is ‘the competitive art of performance poetry before a loud and lively audience’, according to SLAMbassadors UK, the premier competition for young people in this exciting art form. So it is not surprising that one of the centrepieces of the inaugural Winchester’s first poetry festival was a Slam competition.
Earlier this year 12 schools and colleges across the county were invited to participate in qualifying heats for the Hants Slam Dunk competition. For many their inspiration was fired up at a workshop with poet Patience Agbabi (named in 2004 in the once-a-decade list of the brightest talents in poetry in the UK and Ireland as one of the 2004 Next Generation poets.)
She encouraged them not only to put their ideas to paper but also to perform their pieces to their peer group. Before the festival, Ink Pellet caught up with Brian Patten, one of the judges of the student slam. Known for being one of the celebrated Liverpool poets, from the outset his main aim has been to make poetry immediate and accessible for his audience. His mix of the serious and humorous make him hard to equal in performance.
Patten said: ‘Slam began in America about 30 years ago and came over to England mostly in open mic readings. In the early days of performance poetry the winner would be the one who performed the best; or the funniest. It was quite rough and ready then and now it is something that the education system has got hold of!
‘Performance poetry definitely has a leaning towards humour and is its own art form, it is like a rediscovered branch of poetry. It goes back to the old days of the bard, and there is a lot of that in Slam Poetry. Verse began as spoken, before people could read.
‘What it can miss out is the quiet poem, so when schools and teachers are doing it they should keep that in mind. ‘It’s the kind of poetry that is immediate, and can reach a wide audience very quickly. In the early days Adrian Henri and Roger McGough, the Liverpool Poets, were doing that before the word had been invented. We weren’t really considered poets because we were doing it as a show but now it’s normal.
‘It’s a great form; I think of the late Adrian Mitchell, who said, ‘Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people’. Performance poetry doesn’t do that. It’s not better or worse than a person wanting to sit down and write something quiet and articulate things for themselves and unfortunately it can overshadow a much quieter lyrical poetry.’
Now living quietly in Devon, Patten is still writing and says: ‘I write both. I sometimes write things when I am conscious that I’m reading in public and want to try to write something humorous or grab attention because if you can make an audience smile they will listen to your serious work more. The issues I write about are very different.’
The Student Showcase was won by four students, Ellen Gillett, Chance Perdomo, Dom Cramp and Rosemary Brook-Hart, who shared the prize for the best performed with Daniella Ereny. Festival trustee Paul Davies said: ‘The Slam Dunk Hants student showcase was certainly a highpoint of the weekend.
‘It gave an opportunity for young poets to share their work with an audience. The standard of the poetry was exceptional. We heard several promising new poetic voices perform pieces that were truly spellbinding in their grasp of the form and the ambition of their vision.’
The 30 poets and 26 events attracted a total audience of 1450 people and brought world class poets to the cathedral city including Patience Agbabi, Christopher Reid, Brian Patten and Jackie Kay, as well as new voices like Rosemary Brooke-Hart and Dom Cramp. Events included readings, talks, workshops and exhibitions, not to mention the finals of Slam Dunk Hants, which gave young people the chance to perform two works to the panel of judges, poet Brian Patten, Angela Hicken, Hampshire’s literature officer, and Pete Hunter from Apples and Snakes, the performance poetry organisation.
Plans are afoot to hold a second festival in 2016. For more details about Slambassadors UK visit slam.poetrysociety. org.uk or to see poets in action, youtube. com/user/ThePoetrySociety