Spring Break
Coffee house committee hosts poetry slam
Jessica Burk
Issue date: 9/19/08 Section: Life & Style
The University Programs Coffeehouse Committee invites students and faculty to a poetry slam featuring Marty McConnell 9 p.m. tonight at RZ's Coffeehouse.
McConnell is a slam poet from New York and is on a slam team called louderARTS, which placed second in the National Poetry Slam, according to louderarts.com. In addition to completing three national tours with Morrigan, an all-female performance poetry troupe she co-founded, she appeared on the second and fifth seasons of HBO's "Def Poetry Jam" and has performed and facilitated workshops at schools and festivals around the country, according to the Web site.
The committee chose McConnell because "she does a lot to support poetry and she's a very good poet who says a lot with her work," said Michelle Miesse, chair of the Coffeehouse Committee. "Her poetry is beautiful, and it's not just beautiful on the surface. It has underlying beauty that emanates from her performances and words."
Slam Poetry was started in 1985 by a construction worker named Mark Smith because poetry slams were getting too boring, Miesse said. Smith started a poetry reading series at a Chicago jazz club, the Get Me High Lounge, looking for a way to breathe life into the open mike poetry format. The series' emphasis on performance laid the groundwork for a style of poetry and performance which would eventually be spread across the world and instituted the show's basic structure of an open mike, guest performers and a competition, according to slampapi.com.
"Basically, slam poetry is a very energetic poetry performance," Miesse said.
Students should attend the poetry slam because "it's a great new way to experience poetry," she said. "It's a lot different than some old dude droning on his works."
For more information about the committee, contact the UP Coffeehouse Committee at upcoffee@uark.edu.
McConnell is a slam poet from New York and is on a slam team called louderARTS, which placed second in the National Poetry Slam, according to louderarts.com. In addition to completing three national tours with Morrigan, an all-female performance poetry troupe she co-founded, she appeared on the second and fifth seasons of HBO's "Def Poetry Jam" and has performed and facilitated workshops at schools and festivals around the country, according to the Web site.
The committee chose McConnell because "she does a lot to support poetry and she's a very good poet who says a lot with her work," said Michelle Miesse, chair of the Coffeehouse Committee. "Her poetry is beautiful, and it's not just beautiful on the surface. It has underlying beauty that emanates from her performances and words."
Slam Poetry was started in 1985 by a construction worker named Mark Smith because poetry slams were getting too boring, Miesse said. Smith started a poetry reading series at a Chicago jazz club, the Get Me High Lounge, looking for a way to breathe life into the open mike poetry format. The series' emphasis on performance laid the groundwork for a style of poetry and performance which would eventually be spread across the world and instituted the show's basic structure of an open mike, guest performers and a competition, according to slampapi.com.
"Basically, slam poetry is a very energetic poetry performance," Miesse said.
Students should attend the poetry slam because "it's a great new way to experience poetry," she said. "It's a lot different than some old dude droning on his works."
For more information about the committee, contact the UP Coffeehouse Committee at upcoffee@uark.edu.
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