2008 Woodie Awards
O Captain My Captain: Emerson's students slam
Slam, bam, thank you ma'am: 2008 NorthBeast regional competition brings poet's society to life
Kelly Smith
Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: Lifestyle
Poets and patrons alike jammed into the basement of the Cantab Lounge in Central Square on as teams from all over the East Coast competed in the second annual NorthBeast Regional poetry slam in Cambridge for a spot at the 2009 National Poetry Slam in West Palm Beach, Fla. Finger-snaps and foot-stomps responded to the jabbing words and spoken imagery as slammers, or competitive performance poets, rocked the mic for a chance to be crowned NorthBeast slam poetry champ.
Among teams hailing from up and down the New England, Emerson’s Carlos Williams, a junior independent studies, poetry and performance as community education major, and Steve Subrizi, who graduated in 2008, were asked to perform at the slam.
An original member of Emerson’s slam team, Subrizi performed as a part of the White Plains, N.Y. group and was ranked fifth in the final scoring.
But for the Gringo Choir, a student-based performance poetry group, there is much more than a score involved in spoken word poetry; it’s a way of life.
The group, made up of four Emersonians, Max Kessler, Carrie Rudzinski, Williams and Subrizi, won the Regional Poetry Slam Competition in 2007 and qualified for nationals and made it as far as semifinals.
The Gringo Choir was formed in 2007 by Cantab slam master and director of the 2008 regional slam, Simone Beaubien, George Watsky, a junior interdisciplinary major with an emphasis on acting and screenwriting, and alumna Jessica DelBazo, in preparation for that year’s regional slam contest.
Kessler said the Gringos all have very distinct styles and topics that they discuss in their poems. He said because they generate a central theme within each combined piece of work, despite their individual flair, they have developed a specific emphasis on writing rather than simply performing what is popular.
It is this stylistic hook some feel separates Emerson poets from the rest.
Watsky has been performing poetry since the age of 16 when he lived San Francisco. He has also been a featured poet at Cantab and opened for the NorthBeast on the Oct. 3 as a member of the Providence team. Because Emerson has a lot of regulars at the Cantab, he said students have generated respect in the slam poet culture.
“I don’t think I’m biased in saying that Emerson has the best spoken word community in all of the communities in Boston by far,” he said. “You go to Cantab on a Wednesday night and it’s hugely populated by Emerson students most of the time. Emerson has a tradition of having a lot of diverse artists that fosters a community of spoken word poets where you are doing multiple things—you’re performing and you’re writing.”
Kessler, an original member of the Gringo Choir and co-curator of the Emerson Poetry Project, has been an active poet and Cantab attendee since the first week of his freshman year in 2005, when a friend asked him to go to a poetry reader for support. He said Cantab has become a mecca for budding performers, poets and for many, functions more as a home than as a hangout spot.
Every Wednesday night at the lounge, open mics are offered for all poets, writers and readers interested. Kessler, in weekly attendance, said he takes away a sense of solace after a night at a reading.
“There is a real sense of catharsis at the end of the evening,” the writing for film and television major said. “You feel healthier when you leave at night.”
Mike Fitzgerald, 28, a poet and Bostonian has been going to the Cantab regularly since a close friend from Emerson directed him towards its open doors. He said he has spent approximately the last three years involved in writing and spoken word poetry, beginning in the black box performance spaces offered at Emerson. The Cantab and its large Emersonian population has become not just a destination for him but a place of comfort.
“I have so many friends in the community who have stuck with me through my own dramatic swings and falls,” he said. “It helped me to get where I want to be as a writer and I’d really like to make it a part of my life from a career perspective.”
As the popularity of poetry slams increases, some Cantab regulars feel the element of competition may take away from the art.
Fitzgerald described his frustration with the scoring system of slam and the community as a whole.
“The aesthetic is what’s being focused on by the majority of people who are slamming right now,” he said. “Being a slammer has nothing to do with having any talent as a writer. The judges know what the audience is hollering for and they get caught up in the moment. People mistaking good people for good writing is a huge issue with the community at large.”
As for the scoring, Watsky said it is something to take lightly in terms of judging the poetry in itself. He said the concept of “score creeping” where the scores climb as the night continues is an all to common trend.
“It’s a well-documented phenomenon people know that it’s a thing that’s gonna happen. Your friends are the people you are out there supposedly competing with. It’s subjective, that’s the bottom line. There is no real way to declare someone the best in these things. To take the scoring too seriously is to miss the point of what slam poetry is all about.”
While the style of slamming may be distracting from the craft, Watsky said poetry slams have been affective in drawing in audiences in poetry who may never have shown interest before.
“I don’t think that any poet should only be a slam poet because you shouldn’t be doing art for the sport,” he said. “You should be doing it because it resonates with you.”
Rudzinski, co-curator of the Emerson Poetry Project and one of the four original Gringos said after she took “Poetry As Performance” with professor Elizabeth Whitney in her first semester at Emerson she has been addicted to poetry. When they took a class field trip to the Cantab she said the performances blew her away.
“In New England, slam poetry is different than other parts of the country,” the senior film major said. “The Cantab is based on writing, when they invite you there they know you are into writing. The Cantab has been everything, absolutely everything, it has made me the person I am today. Poetry is my life.”
After this experience Rudzinski said she wanted to get Emerson students involved by forming an organization that would host both workshops and open mics on Monday nights—the Emerson Poetry Project. Kessler and Rudzinski said they hope to make this organization recognized by student government by the end of the semester and are currently in the process of writing a constitution.
Despite mixed feelings about the evolving genre, Rudzinski sees room for growth for individual writers in the Boston and New York area because the scenes are so established.
“Right now the Emerson Poetry Project has averaged around 50 to 60 people when we host an Open Mic night,” she said. “As someone who spent three years hosting poetry meetings with 12 people showing up, it’s kind of like all of my dreams are coming true.”
Among teams hailing from up and down the New England, Emerson’s Carlos Williams, a junior independent studies, poetry and performance as community education major, and Steve Subrizi, who graduated in 2008, were asked to perform at the slam.
An original member of Emerson’s slam team, Subrizi performed as a part of the White Plains, N.Y. group and was ranked fifth in the final scoring.
But for the Gringo Choir, a student-based performance poetry group, there is much more than a score involved in spoken word poetry; it’s a way of life.
The group, made up of four Emersonians, Max Kessler, Carrie Rudzinski, Williams and Subrizi, won the Regional Poetry Slam Competition in 2007 and qualified for nationals and made it as far as semifinals.
The Gringo Choir was formed in 2007 by Cantab slam master and director of the 2008 regional slam, Simone Beaubien, George Watsky, a junior interdisciplinary major with an emphasis on acting and screenwriting, and alumna Jessica DelBazo, in preparation for that year’s regional slam contest.
Kessler said the Gringos all have very distinct styles and topics that they discuss in their poems. He said because they generate a central theme within each combined piece of work, despite their individual flair, they have developed a specific emphasis on writing rather than simply performing what is popular.
It is this stylistic hook some feel separates Emerson poets from the rest.
Watsky has been performing poetry since the age of 16 when he lived San Francisco. He has also been a featured poet at Cantab and opened for the NorthBeast on the Oct. 3 as a member of the Providence team. Because Emerson has a lot of regulars at the Cantab, he said students have generated respect in the slam poet culture.
“I don’t think I’m biased in saying that Emerson has the best spoken word community in all of the communities in Boston by far,” he said. “You go to Cantab on a Wednesday night and it’s hugely populated by Emerson students most of the time. Emerson has a tradition of having a lot of diverse artists that fosters a community of spoken word poets where you are doing multiple things—you’re performing and you’re writing.”
Kessler, an original member of the Gringo Choir and co-curator of the Emerson Poetry Project, has been an active poet and Cantab attendee since the first week of his freshman year in 2005, when a friend asked him to go to a poetry reader for support. He said Cantab has become a mecca for budding performers, poets and for many, functions more as a home than as a hangout spot.
Every Wednesday night at the lounge, open mics are offered for all poets, writers and readers interested. Kessler, in weekly attendance, said he takes away a sense of solace after a night at a reading.
“There is a real sense of catharsis at the end of the evening,” the writing for film and television major said. “You feel healthier when you leave at night.”
Mike Fitzgerald, 28, a poet and Bostonian has been going to the Cantab regularly since a close friend from Emerson directed him towards its open doors. He said he has spent approximately the last three years involved in writing and spoken word poetry, beginning in the black box performance spaces offered at Emerson. The Cantab and its large Emersonian population has become not just a destination for him but a place of comfort.
“I have so many friends in the community who have stuck with me through my own dramatic swings and falls,” he said. “It helped me to get where I want to be as a writer and I’d really like to make it a part of my life from a career perspective.”
As the popularity of poetry slams increases, some Cantab regulars feel the element of competition may take away from the art.
Fitzgerald described his frustration with the scoring system of slam and the community as a whole.
“The aesthetic is what’s being focused on by the majority of people who are slamming right now,” he said. “Being a slammer has nothing to do with having any talent as a writer. The judges know what the audience is hollering for and they get caught up in the moment. People mistaking good people for good writing is a huge issue with the community at large.”
As for the scoring, Watsky said it is something to take lightly in terms of judging the poetry in itself. He said the concept of “score creeping” where the scores climb as the night continues is an all to common trend.
“It’s a well-documented phenomenon people know that it’s a thing that’s gonna happen. Your friends are the people you are out there supposedly competing with. It’s subjective, that’s the bottom line. There is no real way to declare someone the best in these things. To take the scoring too seriously is to miss the point of what slam poetry is all about.”
While the style of slamming may be distracting from the craft, Watsky said poetry slams have been affective in drawing in audiences in poetry who may never have shown interest before.
“I don’t think that any poet should only be a slam poet because you shouldn’t be doing art for the sport,” he said. “You should be doing it because it resonates with you.”
Rudzinski, co-curator of the Emerson Poetry Project and one of the four original Gringos said after she took “Poetry As Performance” with professor Elizabeth Whitney in her first semester at Emerson she has been addicted to poetry. When they took a class field trip to the Cantab she said the performances blew her away.
“In New England, slam poetry is different than other parts of the country,” the senior film major said. “The Cantab is based on writing, when they invite you there they know you are into writing. The Cantab has been everything, absolutely everything, it has made me the person I am today. Poetry is my life.”
After this experience Rudzinski said she wanted to get Emerson students involved by forming an organization that would host both workshops and open mics on Monday nights—the Emerson Poetry Project. Kessler and Rudzinski said they hope to make this organization recognized by student government by the end of the semester and are currently in the process of writing a constitution.
Despite mixed feelings about the evolving genre, Rudzinski sees room for growth for individual writers in the Boston and New York area because the scenes are so established.
“Right now the Emerson Poetry Project has averaged around 50 to 60 people when we host an Open Mic night,” she said. “As someone who spent three years hosting poetry meetings with 12 people showing up, it’s kind of like all of my dreams are coming true.”
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