Poets, rappers and spoken word enthusiasts will have the opportunity to strut their stuff in frofeir peers at Ball State University's first university-sponsored poetry slam.
The event, which is organized by Ball State's Campus Programs and Publicity Design, will take place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 26 in Cardinal Hall.
Participants will be culled from the group of poets who participate in poetry slam auditions at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 18 at the Tally located in the Ball State Student Center.
"The event will be classy," organizer Tamara Foster said. "There will be decorations, props, refreshments, cash prizes, and we're hoping to have a couple of opening acts," she said. Each participant will also receive a slam poetry book, Foster said.
The performances will be judged based on the level of audience response as determined by a panel of judges, who will also offer individual critiques to each of the poets.
The first-place poet will receive $150, the second-place poet will receive $100 and the third-place poet will receive $50.
Assistant Director of Campus Programs Janice Altland said that she's gotten a positive response from Ball State poets thus far.
"We were worried about getting poets to participate, but apparently we have a lot," she said.
Foster said that she received 16 e-mail responses from potential slam poets within three hours of sending a call-out e-mail to Ball State students.
Slam poetry, in its traditional form, draws heavily from hip-hop and is often accompanied by a beat box, said former poetry slam participant Chris Newgent.
"There's a lot of word play and double entendres, and the message of the poem is usually more politically charged," Newgent said.
Though not all modern and local poetry slams adhere to these standards, the majority of them do incorporate many elements of traditional slam poetry - most importantly, the emphasis on performance and audience response.
"A successful performance often rests on its comedic value," Nate Logan, who placed third in a recent poetry slam at the MT Cup, said. "If you can make the audience react in any way, then it's successful," he said.
Logan said that the key to slam poetry is "not how it looks on the page, but how it's performed."
Altland said that she and Foster were inspired by a Regional Association of College Unions International Poetry Slam workshop, which incorporated "a lot of yelling," by both the performers and the audience members.
"It's not a quiet little poetry session," Altland said.
Those interested in participating should contact both Altland at jaltland@bsu.edu and Foster at trfoster@bsu.edu.
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