EXPLORING OUR VALUES THROUGH POETRY
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Youth
WORKSHOP 14: THE POETRY SLAM
BY KAREN HARRIS
© Copyright 2008 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 6:59:24 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.
— Robert Heinlein
Today is the big day: the Poetry Slam performance. You have checked and double-checked your list. You have talked to your co-leader and youth who are playing pivotal roles to make sure they are ready. If you are including a fund-raiser at the event, do not forget to confer with those organizers. Eventually, all that will be left to do is to have a great time.
Instead of an Opening, this workshop has a Gathering and Focus activity. There is no Closing.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
ACTIVITY | MINUTES |
Activity 1: Gathering and Focus | 10 |
Activity 2: Poetry Slam! | 50 |
Closing | 5 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
You have worked hard to bring the participants to this point. Before their performance they are bound to be anxious. Your role as a "nonanxious" presence will be very important. How do you get to a place of relative calm within yourself? What helps you keep things in perspective? Some people find it useful to visualize an event before it happens. To do this, get comfortable in a place where you do not expect distractions. Close your eyes and visualize this workshop, from the Opening you have prepared, through the performances, to afterward when you will receive everyone's heartfelt congratulations and give participants your own. Know down deep in your heart that you can deal with any obstacles. Know that youth can look to you to help them shine... and go do it!
WORKSHOP PLAN
OPENING
Materials for Activity
Chalice and matches
Description of Activity
Gather around the chalice. As a volunteer lights the chalice, ask the group to focus on the word “perform.” Invite participants to speak freely into the space a word or two that they associate with the word “perform.” When enough time has passed for everyone who wishes to speak to do so, close by saying,
May the space we create here today be wide enough to hold all our individual ideas and deep enough to allow those ideas to grow, to fruit, and to provide seeds for new beginnings.
Introduce today’s workshop with these words,
In this program, we have tasted the experiences of reading, hearing, writing, and sharing poetry. Congratulations for finding the openness, creativity, and gameness of spirit to take your personal exploration of poetry this far. Today we will turn our attention outward in order to plan a public poetry event.
You may have discovered already that the more invested you are in a poem, the more you care how others respond to it. When a poem speaks from our own hearts, we certainly hope for a gentle, appreciative, energized, or otherwise positive response. Today let us shape our Poetry Slam in a way that encourages listeners to receive our poems with the open hearts that our own hearts desire and deserve.
We can simply read our poems aloud. We can include music. Our Poetry Slam can be a free-admission event or a fund-raiser or it can include a fundraiser like a bake sale. In the open mike tradition of the beatniks, anyone can stand up and recite his/her own work. In the poetry slam tradition that began in the 1990s, performing poets compete before judges. Our Poetry Slam will draw from both traditions, by being a non-competitive, planned piece of performance art. Today we will choose the poems we want to share and design a space where our audience can truly listen.
ACTIVITY 1: GATHERING AND FOCUSING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants receive guidance before the Poetry Slam to help them gather their energies for the event, focus on their roles, and observe their own responses.
Take attendance; in the event of a participant's absence, re-delegate roles as needed. Solve last-minute crises. Allow readers a minute to practice with the microphone.
Remind participants to be mindful of their own experiences during this event, to help them form their thoughts for the reflection activity you will do in the next workshop.
Have everyone come together for a quiet moment, to gather group energy. You may use the Opening designed by the group or the one below.
Gather around the chalice. As a volunteer lights the chalice, ask the group to focus on the word "fun." Invite participants to speak freely into the space a word or two that they associate with the word "fun." When everyone who wishes to has had a chance to speak, close by saying, "Go out and have fun!"
ACTIVITY 2: POETRY SLAM! (50 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Perform the Poetry Slam.
Including All Participants
Remind participants to use the microphone for all readings, even if they think they have a voice that can be heard without amplification.
CLOSING
Materials for Activity
Chalice
Singing the Living Tradition
Preparation for Activity
Extinguish the chalice.
Description of Activity
Use the Closing designed by your group or the one provided below.
Recite together Reading 712 from Singing the Living Tradition:
Do not be conformed to this world,
But be transformed by the renewing of your minds.
— Romans 12
FAITH IN ACTION: PERFORMING THE CHORAL READING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Perform the choral reading. If the group decided to include a spoken part for the audience, announce this at the beginning of the performance. Refer the audience to their part, which should be printed in the program unless it is short enough to be remembered. Remember to acknowledge the congregants who contributed poems.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
You all did it! Take a deep breath. Thank your co-leader for her/his help in the process. The next workshop is your final meeting with the group. Go over the activities, deciding who will lead which ones. If there is anything you want to share with the group and have not yet found the time to do so, make sure you plan to include that in the next workshop.
TAKING IT HOME
A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.
— Robert Heinlein
DURING TODAY'S SESSION...
POETRY SLAM!
REFLECTION QUESTION:
How does your experience with the Poetry Slam compare to other performances of which you have been a part?
EXPLORE THE TOPICS FURTHER WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS...
FIND OUT MORE
Youth Speaks Online is the nation's leading non-profit presenter of spoken word performance, education, and youth development programs.
Gary Mex Glazner, ed. Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry.
POETRY ANTHOLOGIES: There are literally hundreds of poetry anthologies. Availability will be a factor in which ones you use. Before bringing any resources to the group, make sure the content is appropriate for youth. Look for violent images, sexual or other inappropriate language, mature situations, and stereotyping. Aim for ethnic, racial, gender, and cultural diversity. Consider asking a local youth librarian for suggestions. Here are a few anthologies to consider:
Cosman, Carol, Joan Keefe, and Kathleen Weaver, eds. The Penguin Book of Women Poets.
Collins, Billy, ed. Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry.
Reed, Ishmael, ed. From Totems to Hip Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the
Roman, Camille, Thomas Travisano, and Steven Gould Axelrod, eds. New Anthology of American Poetry.