Slam Poetry - History

History

Marc Smith is credited with starting the poetry slam at the Get Me High Lounge in Chicago in November 1984. In July 1986, the slam moved to its permanent home, the Green Mill Jazz Club. In 1990, the first National Poetry Slam took place in Fort Mason, San Francisco, involving a team from Chicago, a team from San Francisco, and an individual poet from New York. As of 2010, the National Poetry Slam has grown and currently features approximately 80 certified teams each year, culminating in five days of competition.

In 1996 a fashion designer by the name of Ayo Ada Ogolo (originally from Liverpool, UK) visited New York, and the famous Nuyorican Poets Café and its Poetry Performance event. Ayo was hooked by the potential of the spoken word and how it could be used to visually illustrate and communicate to an audience that was looking for visual performance. Workshops at the Green Room and on the Nuyrican poets previous visits to Manchester, assisted in similar events being held through the directive of Common word and Culture word officers at the time, Pete Kalu and Cathy Bolton.Ayo was instrumental and key to the hosting of the event, creating a character called Aunty X and setting up of the Poetry Slams both in Manchester (and Liverpool). The original Poetry Slams started at 'The Night and Day Cafe' on Oldham Street in Manchester's City Centre, then moved to the 'Frog and Bucket' on the same road. Richard Michael became interested in sponsoring the event, with Henry Normal (the cardigan poet, and writer of the first Manchester British sitcoms The Royle Family in 1998), deciding to sponsor it himself. It was so successful that Manchester Airport became its major sponsor. The Manchester Poetry Festival was then set up by Richard Michael, and now attracts big names such Zadie Smith 'White Teeth Jackie Kay etc., as It continues to be successful. Group members from the original Poetry Slam performances have gone on to form their own poetry based programmes, for and on behalf of the next generation of poets.

Slams have spread all over the world, with slam scenes in Hawaii, Ireland, Nepal, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia, Bosnia, Denmark, Latvia, South Korea, Japan, India, Greece, Spain, Mexico, and France.