Confessions of a Human Nerve Ending

In this episode, Don re-broadcasts "Slam: Literary Fad or Movement." The hour long show features poetry from Marc Smith, Patricia Smith, Marty McConnell, Regie Gibson, Taylor Mali, Gary Glazner, Danny Solis, Colleen Gorman, and DaShade Moonbeam. It also includes interviews with many of above poets. In the 9th installment of the PSI podcast, series curator, Don McIver re-broadcasts "Slam: Literary Fad or Movement." Don McIver MP3 5th March 2007 poetry, slam, art, performance

After a nice hike in the moutains above Salida, we swam in the hot springs pool and I went over to my workshop at Bongo Billy’s. I was surprised to see the room full, more dropping in and wondered why I even bothered to ask their names if I wasn’t going to remember them. Oh, the teacher in me. It says do this and this to break the ice, but doesn’t bother to tell the poet, “Now make sure you try and remember their names.” On the plus side, I started out my workshop: “Spoken Word: Literary Fad or Movement,” by explaining my relationship to this very strange, amorphous genre. We talked a bit about the early Dadaist movement and played Kurt Schwitter and argued that that is arguably the birth of “spoken word,” because if there is any sense to be made in what he is saying it is in the hearing of it. I think the hearing of it creates a sort of happy satisfaction in the listener, which reading it on the page never would. But it would be nice to really understand what ...

The little performance poetry festival that could. A few years ago, I was at the Mercury Cafe in Denver (the home of the fabulous Denver Poetry Slam) and saw a poster of the 2003 Sparrows. Gary Glazner, Roanne Lewis (the original incarnation of the Headless Buddhas) and I traveled up for one night and auditioned (5 minutes) and they invited us to come back the next year. We, sans Roanne, came back and performed (adding Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer to the mix) and we killed. Easily the best Headless Buddhas set we've done. Well, Gary moved on to other things, I moved on to other things and didn't really think about Sparrows (in 2005-duh! wonder why) and in 2006 I sent the organizer an e-mail and asked if he needed anybody. They'd already overfilled their bill, so I didn't come up. But this year, they wrote me and asked if I'd be willing to perform, just me. So, last night I performed. At first I thought it was gonna be weird. They had set up the stage as ...

Well, I'm back and finally have settled into life back in ABQ. I don't know how, but my April seems to be bleeding into my March and February. I love it, but at the same time it makes things to just whiz by. So, we're gonna be sending 4 poets to Flagstaff to compete in a WinandURIn bout. At first, I thought I was gonna battle for ABQ's place, but now think sending the College team for ABQ and competing for Farmington may be the way to go. I don't have to be on Farmington's team and can still work on my chops for finals.

So we're settling into the competition here. The formats way too complicated to explain easily, but Jazz and Cuffee both have to unleash it tonight to move on. I bout managed and struggled to find diverse judges. Yes, Vancouver is diverse, but they weren't the ones that came to my particular slam. We started on time and Simone Beabiene (sp?) was great. Great MC. The bout went off without hitch and Jazz did "Angel" and "Laugh." Good solid performance. Didn't get to see Cuffee but he did, "Fruits of a Lesser God" and "Isaac and Ismail." Looking forward to tonight. Hopefully will be able to put some pictures up next post.

Oh Canada. I'm at the Individual World Poetry Slam Well, my long national nightmare is over. At 2 PM yesterday, I picked up my passport (a reissue) because I had yet to get the first finished one from Houston, TX and we headed up north. Daemond Arrindel and JW Baz were above accomodating and waited for me, delaying their trip by three hours as I waited for the bureaucracy to do its thing. It did and I'm writing this from Canada. Of course, they didn't even look at my passport at the border. Maybe they will when I try and get back in? Other than a short stint as a kid, which I don't remember, and a short run to Palomas, Mexico for Tequila and a teeth cleaning, this is my first foray into non-America. Vancouver is stunning, surrounded by beautiful snow capped mountains the weather is quite seasonable and I caught a ride to Commercial Drive for the First Nations Slam and Last Chance Slam. It was a small Italian restaurant amid a "Nob Hill" like display o...

In this episode, Don talks with Steve Marsh. Steve is a poet, the Executive Director of Poetry Slam Incorporated, slam master for the Ann Arbor Poetry Slam, and the founder of The Wordsmith Press. In the 8th installment of the PSI podcast, series curator, Don McIver talks with Steve Marsh. Don McIver MP3 22nd January 2007 poetry, slam, art, performance