Marc Smith

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Marc Kelly Smith is an American poet, and the creator and founder of the poetry slam movement, for which he received the nickname Slam Papi.^[1]

Born on the southeast side of Chicago in 1950, Smith spent most of his young life as a construction worker, but has written poetry since he was 19.

Contents 1 Uptown Poetry Slam 2 Bibliography 3 Filmography 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Uptown Poetry Slam

Smith had started an open mic night at the Get Me High lounge in November 1984 called the Monday Night Poetry Reading.^[1] Even as poets scoffed at artists "performing" their work, rather than genteely "reading" it, the event grew in popularity.^[1] Smith saw his approach as an "up yours" to establishment poets he considered snooty and effete, because at their events, "no one was listening".^[2]

According to Smith, who once attended a conventional reading with his manuscripts concealed inside a newspaper, "The very word 'poetry' repels people. Why is that? Because of what schools have done to it. The slam gives it back to the people.... We need people to talk poetry to each other. That's how we communicate our values, our hearts, the things that we've learned that make us who we are."^[3]

With a like-minded troupe, Smith hosted the first poetry slam at the Get Me High Lounge in the Bucktown neighborhood in 1986.^[4] The event soon migrated to the Green Mill, a tavern and jazz lounge in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, where it has remained ever since.^[4] Other poets in the first slam were Mike Barrett, Rob Van Tyle, Jean Howard, Anna Brown, Karen Nystrom, Dave Cooper, and John Sheehan, all fellow members of the Chicago Ensemble of Poetry.^[1] According to Smith, the first slam was more variety show than competition.^[1] Though all slams vary in format, Smith is considered responsible for key features, including the selection of judges from the audience and cash prizes.

As stated in the PBS television series, The United States of Poetry , a “strand of new poetry began at Chicago's Green Mill Tavern in 1987 when Marc Smith found a home for the Poetry Slam.” Smith had found a crowd-inclusive, entertaining method for nurturing the poetry scene. Since then, performance poetry has spread throughout the world, exported to over 500 cities large and small.

Since July of 1986, Marc has run the Uptown Poetry Slam, a three hour show featuring an open mic (1 hour), feature--poet or professional touring act (1 hour), and the poetry slam. It is the longest running, weekly poetry show in the country, and one of the longest running shows in Chicago history. He has performed his own, blue-collar, Carl Sandberg influenced poetry to over 100,000.

Over the years Smith has turned down offers to commercialize the slam, including movie offers and bids for corporate sponsorship.^[2]

In 1990, the first National Poetry Slam was held in San Francisco (with three city teams attending including Chicago and New York City), and has continued to rotate among cities.

[edit] Bibliography

• By Someone's Good Grace, CD 1993, Publisher Splinter Group Chicago
• Crowdpleaser, 1996, Publisher Jeff Helgeson
• The Spoken Word Revolution, 2003, Publisher Sourcebooks Publishing, advisor to the book/narrator of CD portion
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Slam Poetry, 2004, Penguin/Alpha Press (co-written with Joe Kraynak)
• The Spoken Word Revolution Redux, 2006, Publisher Sourcebooks Publishing, narrator of CD portion
• Quarters in the Jukebox, CD, 2006, Publisher EM Press (www.em-press.com), live and studio tracks, with bands and solo

[edit] Filmography

• SlamNation - 1998, directed by Paul Devlin
• Sunday Night Poets - 2002, directed by David Rorie, Pugi Films distributed by National Film Network

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Personal home page
• slampapi.com