Over the last several years, YOUTH SPEAKS after-school poetry workshops have helped turn hundreds of student writers into passionate poets.Poem Starters and Creative Writing Ideas Here are lots of poem starters that you can use for your own poetry writing. And now, Jen Weiss, director of YOUTH SPEAKS New York, and Scott Herndon share some of the secrets of their successenabling you to transform your poetry lessons into a dynamic learning environment, where students develop not only a passion for poetry, but clear and powerful expression. Utilizing student examples from their spoken word poetry workshops, Weiss and Herndon present their methods and outline a practical five-week course that fosters poetic awareness by focusing on writing, self-reflection, and performance. Designed specifically for middle and high school English classrooms, Brave New Voices offers teachers an overview of spoken word poetry and explores the relationship between poetic forms, youth expression, and performance. Ultimately, teachers will discover guidelines for staging a teen poetry slam, enabling students to unlock their poetic passion in front of their peers. Ultimately, Brave New Voices provides teachers with a "how-to" guide to staging a teen poetry slam, enabling students to unlock their poetic passion in front of their peers. For all levels of students and developing artists, from the shy to savvy, here is a way to spark a love of poetry. And for teachers, here is a way to liberate poetry from dry textbooks by tapping the poetic potential within the next generation.Slam Poetry and Spoken WordWhat is this thing called slam poetry? For students already composing poems, here is a way to help them take a powerful step forward in their growth as writers. Slam poetry is where open mic becomes a competition. Props, costumes and musical accompaniment are not allowed.Ĭontestants get three minutes and no more to perform an original work. The reader is then judged on a scale of zero to ten by five judges selected from the audience.Įxceeding three minutes earns a time penalty. Both quality of the writing and performance are considered. The remaining three are totaled to form the reader’s score for that round.ĭepending on the size of the field, the lowest scoring competitors may be cut. Only the high scores will advance to the next round. In a large competition, there may be three rounds. Whoever finishes with the highest combined score wins a cash prize. Second and third place end up with a gag prize worth a buck or two. Most important, first place gets three points, second gets two and third gets one. At the end of the season, writers with the highest point totals compete to perform at the nationals. No matter what the pay is, that is serious publicity for some dude or chick complaining about an ex-lover in a coffee shop. That is the first thing to understand about writing for this purpose. The readers get words on a page and should need nothing else. They see the punctuation and where the lines end. They can reread and take time to absorb what they have read. They should learn more when they approach the text for the second or third time. If the author must be present, delivering the words with his or her own inflection, then the poem has failed.
I don’t like using “poetry,” “poet” or “poem” at these events. You get one chance to get your impression across. Double entendre, toying with homophones and other word play will be lost. The audience must get it one the first pass. Establish a clear theme and stick with it. If you are writing about women being like great books, don’t stray from that imagery. Don’t get too elaborate or you will leave the people saying, “Huh?” Make sure they can feel, smell and taste your words.
When writing poetry, I almost never use rhyme. When writing a script for a slam, I almost always do. You need to move the crowd, but be subtle with it. I vary the length of my lines (even when they can’t read them) or rather, I vary the time and number of words between rhymes.
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