Vogue Robinson asked a question to slam-masters about booking features. Here’s my take: Too many poets get trapped in slam. Keep in mind, I say this AS a slam-master. When I created my slam, I wanted an environment that actively worked to mold poets into reaching what I feel should be the ultimate goal of every slam poet: To get out of Slam. Your goal as a poet shouldn’t be to win slams, the affection of 5 random (most likely drunk) strangers waving score cards. Your job as a poet is to be a dope writer, performer, host, feature – the whole shebang. Your job is to be a Swiss Army knife. There are so many poets who know how to win slams, but can’t beast a 20 minute set free from the rules of slam (props, music, poems longer than 3:10, et cetera) to save their life. Slam is a stepping stone. A necessary stepping stone, but still a stepping stone. If I didn’t believe in Slam and the community and all it provides, I wouldn’t have become a slam-master and fought so hard to get a PSI-certified venue to launch locals to a larger national and global platform. That said, here’s what I do for features: My regular season slams are monthly and two rounds long. During the first round, all poets must slam a poem they’ve never performed on that stage before. Between rounds, the features get a half-hour set, followed by a brief intermission so they can sell their merch. How do I pick my features? Well, unless a big name comes into town, each month’s feature is the winner of last month’s slam. The old Orlando slam was weekly, and this would often cause particular poets to go on month-long winning streaks, self-included. This gets bothersome. We’ve all been there: “Oh so-and-so’s on the list. Well, I guess I’m happy with 2nd place.” I’ve heard tale of poets note signing up for slams because some rock star force-of-nature slammer was on the list. Personally, I find this behavior cowardly when slam is supposed to be fun, but I do get how n00bs get intimidated. Again, The S.A.F.E! Words! Poetry! Slam! is monthly, so as to prevent similar consecutive streaks. The idea being that before the slam has even started, there’s going to be a new winner. More so, slam winners are rewarded thrice-fold, not only as the next month’s paid feature, but they are also given a chance to get merch together in the month before the next slam. (One of our mottos at S.A.F.E.! Words! is #WeGotAGuy4That) We have staff willing to help slam winners get CDs and chapbooks together in the month between their win and their headlining feature at next slam. A hypothetical scenario: Can you imagine never having read onstage before, at a slam or an open mic, and suddenly you win a slam with two poems you wrote on a napkin at the bar. What? What’s that?! NEXT MONTH I HAVE FEATURE?! A GUY’S GOING TO HELP ME GET A BOOK TOGETHER? AND I GET PAID TO HEADLINE? My belief is features should never do anything for free. And while all my features and slam winners get cash, I for one believe, poets should leave the room with as much in their pockets as possible, hence, I encourage all features to get their merch up so they can leave the venue with extra in addition to what I paying them up front. If someone comes from out of town and wants a feature, it’s cool. I’ll put them in direct contact with the local who won my last slam and they can make a decision together. I have no problem postponing some local’s feature so long as they and the out-of-town poet are mutually cool with it. Part of the reason I’m insistent on poets having merch is so we don’t have to pass the hat amongst the audience, but if need be, we’ll do whatever’s necessary. But the major point I wanted to make is this: If you want to be a successful slam poet, Get. Out. Of. Slam. Your job isn’t to win slams. Your job is to get paid for features – even in your hometown. You need that experience. Rappers don’t want to battle their whole lives. They want to cut albums. Singers don’t want to go through assembly lines on American Idol and X-Factor. They want careers in stadiums and Grammys and the chance to singing the national anthem at The Superbowl. Contests only pay if you win them. And like it or not, the odds are against you. You want to get published. You want to cut a spoken word album. You want to be the headliner so you can get paid up front and do a set that includes cover poems and stuff with music and super-long experimental work that Slam won’t let you get away with – stuff you WANT TO DO without worrying whether your scores high enough to make it to the next round. For the love of Squad, GET OUT OF SLAM MODE. Should you know how to win slams? Completely. Should you be able to get along with a team of 4 or 5 strangers and possibly make some group-pieces together? Completely. Learning to work with people isn’t just a Slam lesson. That’s a LIFE lesson. But once you learn those skill, you need to move on. Whatever you do in life, you should get so good at it that you get bored and decide to move on. If you have 5-7 slam poems of your own in your repertoire and have been doing poetry onstage for at least 2 and ½ years, you should have features under your belt. Period. That is undebatable. This is a plea to all slam-masters and veterans of local poetry scenes: You are sensais of the dojo. You are The Jedi Council. Your mission is to train new voices in all facets of poetry and spoken word – slam strategy, writing and editing, stage presence, proper posture and body language, how to conduct a beastly feature, how to get published and recorded, how to tour, who to call when on the road, who to room with slam conventions, how to cut costs so poets still have enough cash to eat (I.E. trading CDs and chapbooks opposed to buying each other’s merch), how to host their own events. I ask you all to follow my lead. Your job is not for your teams and reps to win Nats, IWPS, WOWPS, et cetera. Your job is to build warrior poets. Well-rounded, self-sustaining artists who no longer need you. A sensai’s job is done when the student can take care of themselves. My job isn’t done until some rookie who slams at my night leaves my city and starts their own slam 5 years from now after touring colleges throughout North America for $1,500 a night, selling and autographing copies of their own book. Slam is just a platform for TEDtalks, for one-man / one-woman Fringe shows, for publishing deals, for spots at Coachella, for gigs opening for rappers and rock bands, for collaborations with artists of other various genres and media. But Slam is a NECESSARY platform, and I find it the highest honor to lead the school that gives others that springboard towards their future where they may go on to meet new friends, and even their husbands and wives. I urge all slam-masters to stop courting out-of-town features when there are bevies of local talent right at their fingertips. I’m not saying, don’t book poets who come into town. I’m saying, give your own a chance and actively encourage and train them so that one day they’ll be some other city’s visiting big name celebrity poet. It starts with a venue that treats everyone like a rock star. Everyone. Everyone is as good as [insert name here]. Everyone is the next Saul Williams. If you believe that, your n00bs and open mic’ers will rise to the occasion. Always. (Google / Wiki: “The Pygmalion Effect”.) The sensai doesn’t need to battle any more. That’s why he’s the sensai. He has nothing to prove. His only job is to make more sensais. Your only job as a poet is to get onstage and make more poets. Your only job as an artist is to make more artists. Your only job as a slam-master is to make more slam-masters. Show ‘em how it’s done. I’d tell you all to lead by example, but the thing is, whether you know it or not, you already are.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 07:52:52 +0000
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