Information, poetry exchanged at Slam

By Shannon O'Sullivan

Daily Arts Writer

There aren't many places you can find the janitor who sweeps in Angell Hall, a professor in the geology department and the kid who sits behind you in Spanish class gathered together, expressing knowledge as a university community.

Except, that is, Thursdays at the Union, because the weekly U-Club Poetry Slam kicks off this week with Word Explosion, featuring Angie Colette Beatty and Dee Dee White.

Before the featured poets present their works, there is an open-microphone event. This event is open to anyone who would like to get up and express their works. However, the Poetry Slam is limited to the first 10 University students, faculty or staff who sign up. Each poet in the Slam competition must be presenting their own, original work without any props or costumes.

All types of poetry are presented: rhyme, confessional, hip-hop, jazz and even Latin. The most current tendency has been leaning toward "in your face poetry," and more specifically, poetry dealing with world issues, social justice and rights.

This is not just your typical poetry reading though. The Poetry Slam is a competition as well. Five judges are randomly selected from the audience and they are given Olympic-style score cards. Judges rate the poets on a 10 point scale on the content of the poem, how it was delivered, etc. The highest and lowest scores are dropped, with the middle three being averaged together for a total score.

Each night the poet with the top score will be awarded a cash prize of $10. In addition, top scoring poets will be asked back in March 2001 for the Grand Slam. At the Grand Slam, four top poets will be selected, and compete for University at the first College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational in April.

After becoming inspired at a poetry slam in Boston, Robb Thibault moved to North Dakota, where he began a program similar to the U-Club Poetry Slam. Thibault links the Poetry Slam in connection with the beat poets; it is basically the same idea, people gathering together in an expression of knowledge that some consider academic and some don't.

The Poetry Slam also simply gets people involved in poetry. The Union is the perfect place to hold such an event as this, as its original purpose was as a gathering place for people of mutual interests.

"Estrogen Rush" is the title for this week's Slam, featuring Angie Beatty, a.k.a. Earthshine, and Dee Dee White, a.k.a. The Velvethammer. Beatty is pursuing a Ph.D. in Mass Communication at the University, studying women of color in media and hip-hop. She has an upcoming performance at the Sisterphyre 2000 Conference in Atlanta.

Dee Dee received a BFA in Theatre Performance and a BA in Film and Video Studies from the University of Michigan. She became known as the Velvethammer, for "stamping out ignorance, ethnic codes of activism, manifesting revolution."

October 5th, the second Slam of the season, will enthrall onlookers, as national poetry slam champion Reggie Gibson and the youngest of the beat poets, Kent Foreman, are scheduled to perform.

If anyone is interested, Robb Thibault is calling all hosts or co-hosts to relegate misogyny "to the outer recesses of never should have been."

This event is being sponsored by the Michigan Union Arts and Programs. For more information, go to http://www.umich.edu/~poetslam/.