Assignment 3 Working Thesis

Ailene Huang

Topic: The Poetry Slam Movement

Working Thesis: 

Poetry slams, a movement started by poet and construction worker Marc Smith, began in the city of Chicago, and conceived as a way to share, engage and expose the regular folk to the art of poetry beyond the bounds of “academic poetry.” The movement’s competitive, grassroots, interactive and provoking nature contributed to its success, especially among the generation of youth and young adults. The movement has gone from little known poetry clubs in the cities of Chicago and New York to the small screen of HBO and MTV. Though the essence of the movement’s community culture has largely been maintained, it has, throughout the years, gotten commercialized through mainstream exposure, allowing it to also evolve into a forum that tackles themes of race, gender and class disparities prevalent in today’s political and social structures. 

Anotated Bibliography:

1) Somers-Willett, Susan B. A. The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry: Race, Identity, and the Performance of Popular Verse in America. Michigan: University of Michigan, 2009. Print. 

Somers-Willett dives into the idea of how racial and personal identities of poets themselves contribute to their own slam poetry as well as the poetry slam movement. The racial, sexual orientation and gender identity of many slam poets has molded and shaped the movement and has become a major theme in itself in the slam culture. This has given rise to a large representation of youth within the movement and the mainstreaming of this type of art form. I’ll be using this to analyze how these themes of identity has shaped and changed the movement throughout time.

2) Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam. New York: Soft Skull, 2008. Print. 

Aptowicz and contributing writers in this book offer a deep analysis of the rise of poetry slams in American culture, the influence of modern poetry and hip-hop culture, and how the popularization of the art of poetry has influenced the movement itself. The wide range of authors and their stories will help me in my analysis of the origins of the movement, its main actors, and the effect it has had on society since its inception.

3) Rohter, Larry. "Is Slam in Danger of Going Soft?" The New York Times. N.p., 2 June 2009. Web. 19 Oct. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/books/03slam.html?_r=1&>.

Rohter’s article on poetry slams for The New York Times comes after slam poets were invited to the White House to perform and “jam.” In the article, Rohter interviews the creator of the poetry slam movement, Marc Smith, as well as other poets and authors who are prominent in the slam world. There’s an interesting juxtaposition in the article, pointing out how the movement has shifted away from classical poetry and how people either deem the shift as good exposure for the art form, or the death of the art form all together. This article will help me analyze the affects of mainstreaming the grassroots movement, the controversies it has created within the poetry world, and the positive and/or negative effects it has had on the original intention of the movement itself.