I had to chuckle when I came upon an article about National Poetry Month activities which included a plug for "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Slam Poetry" by Marc Kelly Smith and Joe Kraynak. I grinned - finally! - someone's read my thoughts! Not thoughts that I have about slam poetry but that I'm an idiot, and someone's finally given me recognition for it!! Until I read further that it was Marc Kelly Smith who actually invented Slam Poetry in 1984 - at which point I bowed in reverence to the man who jump-started a resurgence of poetry readers and writers as well as branded poetry into the nation's conscience. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but probably not by much.
"Slam poetry attempts to invigorate poetry by giving equal weight and integrity to the poetry and the performance," stressed Marc Kelly Smith. In his book he goes about explaining the concept and gives up the skinny on how to go about it. Cool!
