Urban Dictionary jokingly defines slam poetry as “the only thing…that makes anyone under the age of 30 like poetry.”
Slam poetry is a spoken-word performance that rejects traditional poetic techniques and usually is presented in a competitive setting in front of a live audience. Poets place specific attention on the word choice and rhythm of their work, often to evoke an emotional reaction from their audience. It has rightfully gained its ground in the literary community after its creation in the 1980s. In a poetry slam competition, the poems are ranked by a panel of judges on a scale of 0 to 10, with zero being the worst and ten being the best. In national poetry slams, there are often five judges, but in smaller settings, there are usually only three. Poets generally have three minutes to perform their work and in these competitions, props, music, and costumes are prohibited, meaning the performers have to rely solely on their facial expressions, changes in voice, and body language. Slam poems tackle difficult and diverse topics, ranging from depression to anger to first love.
Here are five slam poems that you should stop and listen to right now.
1. “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” by Olivia Gatwood
This poem is a passionate criticism of the “manic pixie dream girl” trope that is often presented in books and movies. The term was coined in 2007 by film critic Nathan Rabin, who defined a manic pixie dream girl as a “fantasy figure who exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directions to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.” Olivia Gatwood is nationally recognized for her slam poetry and recently published a book of her poetry titled New American Best Friend, which you can view here.
2. “OCD” by Neil Hilborn
Delivered as the stream-of-consciousness of someone struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder, Neil Hilborn presents the impact of his OCD on his love life. This poem is a great example of a poet manipulating his voice and the repetition of phrases to capture the compulsive nature of his story. Hilborn writes and performs poems about his battles with mental illness and published a collection of poems two years ago called Our Numbered Days.
3. “Explaining My Depression To My Mother: A Conversation” by Sabrina Benaim
Sabrina Benaim lists her mother’s trite advice on treating her daughter’s depression in this passionate and emotional slam poem. This performance effectively captures Benaim’s struggle to explain her emotions to her mother and her emotions reflect those in the poem. She also physically expresses her feelings through her physical demeanor; she appears shaky, nervous and shrill when delivering her work to emphasize how her depression affects her. A performance and teaching artist from Toronto, Benaim represented Canada at the Women of the World Poetry Slam in 2015. Her published book of poems, Depression & Other Magic Tricks, can be found here.
4. “My Honest Poem” by Rudy Francisco
This poem is a quick-paced, funny dissection of Rudy Francisco’s personality and social anxiety. The performance reflects the poet’s nature – quirky and lighthearted, but with something darker lurking beneath the surface. He is truthful in the poem, offering to the audience things he may not even want to fully admit to himself. Francisco has won nearly a dozen awards for his poetry and frequently tours around the United States. His published works can be found here.
5. “Ode To My Bitch Face” by Olivia Gatwood
Also performed by Olivia Gatwood, this last poem taps into the term in the title created by, according to Gatwood, “someone who was just generally unhappy with the fact that women aren’t smiling literally all the time.” This term recently became widely used in the media, appearing in magazines like Cosmopolitan and Elle, and is commonly exclusively used in reference to women. Gatwood frequently writes odes to features about herself that society has made her feel guilty about, often revolving around what it means to be a woman or the judgments women face. (Warning: contains some explicit language)