peace and blessings,

i have a serious question that i would like serious feedback on. if a 
poet enters a slam and is reciting their working from a printout 
instead of reciting from memory, would you tend to look down upon that 
poet?

at nationals last year, i remember seeing one poet recite from paper. 
i was just wondering if this is frowned upon.

thanks 

evan





I used to mark down a full point for reading from page when I would judge.
 
I've since changed my mind. If the poet can still perform well despite 
reading from page, then it doesn't matter. However, I've seen very few 
poets who can really perform while holding a page and having their eyes 
on it. I like having two free hands and my eyes on the audience.

/Todd Bannon/






Hey there bud! I will jump in on this one since the city in which i 
rep slam has sent cats to nats for the past few years and 90% of 
those teams have read from paper(i have been the only constant 
exception).

Will the average joe blow audience member out there look at a poet 
who reads from paper differently than one who does not?
YES- BUT!!-only if some other things are taken into consideration-
1) is the poet on paper reading a poem that is just as engaging if 
not more so than the memorized one?
2) is the paper poet performing the poem (either thru voice 
inflection and/or eye contact and body language) or just reading it?
3) Are the poets in front of a 'slam savvy' crowd? (used to seeing 
slams/people come in from out of town/big on national or regional 
scene,etc)

Here's the thing- A GREAT POEM on PAPER will beat an BARELY AVERAGE 
POEM memorized by an BARELY AVERAGE POET.

The average poet is just that...average. so if ou know in your heart 
of hearts that you are scribing some of the best stuff to ever be 
put down on paper, go for it.

The problem and/or catch with reading from paper is it requires you 
to be "ON" at an incredibly high level every time you slam. You 
cannot falter or slip. If you do, then it was magically because of 
the 'paper'. You lose your place? You get nervous? you write some 
crap? It all gets blamed on that "paper". Get it?

Plus for ages cats have been knocking people who read from 
paper...whether deservedly so or not doesn't matter. What it has 
done over time is convince people that if you read off paper:
1- you did not prepare (myth)
2-you don't take it seriously (myth)
3-you are not professional (myth and stupid)
4- you are a weaker poet than one who memorizes (tell kim brazwell 
that as you look up to her on the indy final stage last year-paper 
in hand)

Now- memorizing has great upsides-
1- you always have the poem on you (barring pulling a 'mums')
2- there is nothing separating you from the audience
3-you have more room physically to perform your piece(assuming it is 
a piece which requires that...alot don't and that is a whole nother 
talk)
4- you do 'appear' in the audiences mind to be more prepared (while 
this is not always true it is basic psychology and therefore cannot 
be avoided, try as you might)

Now for paper-
1- almost assures you you won't forget your poem (if you do then 
someone should whip you with danny solis dreds till you 
scream 'amistad')
2- gives you a buffer from audience..(a great way to start 
slamming...like training wheels)
3- can be used as an intentional or unintentional prop that is 
totally LEGAL (Hahahaha!!! Thwarted again!) As in list style 
poems..open letter poems,etc.
4- Can POSSIBLY-this is a long shot mind you-connect you to the 
audience via reverse psychology..."Hey look, he's reading from 
paper, like the rest of us regular cats do! He's one of us guys. 
Let's give him all 9.9's!" [do not hold your breath for this one]

So to sum it all up-
A great poem on paper performed great will trump an average poem 
performed by an average poet averagely.
a good poem on paper will get trumped by a good poem memorized. 
(this is the key factor-if all thingsbeing equal, the memorized cat 
SHOULD have an advantage)

I for one would like to see more cats slam from paper. I think it 
would redirect the focus of the poetry back to the poetry. Gasp!
On the flip side, I would also love to see cats who memorize their 
poems really start to perform the poem in a manner that is conducive 
to the POEM, not the POET. There is a difference.

What matters most is doing what mkes YOU feel comfortable, paper or 
not. The one poet guaranteed to get their booty spanked is the one 
who lacks confidence when reading, lacks comfort when reading, is 
scared shitless when reading. (not to be confused with butterflies 
or a case of the nerves, both of which should almost ALWAYS be there 
if yo uask me)

A comfortable, confident poet will beat mostly anyone in a slam on 
those two merits alone. Godforbid they have a damn good poem too. ;)

Now, ignore everything I have said and return to the kitchen. the 
noodles are trying to get out of the pot and the mayonaise is 
gesturing lewdly to the old orange juice. Nevermind the cat is 
playing with the garbage disposal again, get teh godamn mayo before 
it does something we'll all regret!

Why are you still reading this? For the love of Mary, get the fork 
off that stick of butter! You sick puppy! You Hitler humping peach 
cobbler eating, yogurt abuser! Don't touch that spoon! I'm warning 
you!

edmabrey
annakin skywalkers pimp
leader by proxy
teh darkside







Just to add another opinion:

Reading from papers should be a disqualification. Papers are personal 
crutches and the poet should be strong enough to relate to the crowd 
and rock them sans the paper. Why is it in Poetry that we publicially 
allow the acceptance of performing with paper? This is why Slam seems 
weak when compared to other vocal competitions or performances. 
If you dont think so, ask someone on the streets what they think of 
Slam. Shit, at least the kids on the anti drug poetry commercials 
don't read from papers. I walk into classrooms and that's what they 
think slam is. I take them to a slam and they see someone reading 
a paper and they're like, "what is this shit, he's cheating" 
(and yes, they do take time to hear the poet out after their initial 
expression). I would walk out of a battle if someone spit from a paper 
the same as I would walk out of a theatrical production if they acted 
their play out with script in hand. For one, I teach my Slam students 
(train them while they're young right?) never to read from a paper in 
public because it is a competition, and in fairness, only the most 
skilled should win (Which I guess could be another debate). Like a 
(real)wrestling match: skill and spirit; no weapons, props, friends, 
or lucky charms. To me it just doesn't show mastery of the self or 
the material, no matter who you are.

Peace.

/"enlightened"/






Evan,


What do you think about somebody, starting a mail with, 
let's say "Just to add another opinion" & then coming up 
with such arguments like poets avec paper in hand
are not strong enough to relate to & rock crowds ?

What do you think about somebody, who believes that 
performing with paper in hand does harm Poetry, 
especially, when her or his email adress is enlightened ?

What do you think about somebody, who teaches slam to young people
but has no respect for poetry performed with paper in hand &
probably strenghtens young people's prejudices ?

What do you think about somebody, who argues with comparing actors, 
performing a play with paper in hand, to poets who perform that way ?

What do you think of somebody who walks out of a slam, 
because some poet performs with paper in hand ?

What do you think about somebody, who 
does not sign her or his mail with a name ?


I don't know you. I don't know "enlightened". But I would not care shit, 
if I would get an unlightened opinion like that.


peace without bullshit !

andré

btw. what do you think of Ed Mabrey's reply ?






Ah, there's some hardcore tolerance for you, and some real, deep 
understanding of nonconformity.

I've got a medical condition.  I take drugs for it that make it hard for 
me to concentrate and memorize.  While I still have dozens of poems from 
memory from my slam days, I haven't been able to memorize anything new 
for about five years.

Guess I'm not  a legititmate poet, eh?  Guess I can't rock the crowd?  
Guess I can't spit truth?  (I hate that phrase, by the way -- for me, it 
implies that the words are distasteful. )  This is moronic bullshit. 

A performance poet of the highest caliber moves the crowd with words, 
not with horseshit pyrotechnics and false opinions of showmanship over 
substance.  Memorize, by all means, but let's recall that it's the words 
the poet offers that count -- not the physical place he gets them from.

Isn't this shit intolerance what we all claim to be against?

Tony






All I'm hearing is intolerance and hate now on an opinion. I thought 
we were suppose to be united. I hear alot of people talking about how 
we need to eviscerate the proletariat, lets get rid of the classes and 
labels, but i never like taking names. And it always seem to me that 
we're seperating each other. Well, read your papers then. Have we 
gotten to a point where an idea has to be attacked personally? We 
could of just kept it to "memory or paper" So look, to those that 
want to argue email me directly and we can discuss this like civilized 
beings. Lets not waste everyones time. Also, can we stop getting 
offended so easily, maybe then I wouldn't feel like i have to defend, 
so i'm sorry to those that read this. But I think maybe there's a 
difference in the ways our cultures deal with words, maybe. But can't 
we just love when someone thinks differently then us and move on. Great, 
people dont think what I think. Let's not feel threatened and move on. 
There's an old story i know of. Two monks are walking together. As monks 
they were not allowed to hold on to women. Well one day the two monks 
are walking and they come to cross a river where an old woman was 
waiting for the river to ease. One of the monks saw this and picked 
her up as they walked across the river. The monk dropped her off and 
continued walking as the otehr monk catched up. The monk, who did not 
carry the woman, asked the other, "Brother why did you hold the woman 
in your hands, it is forbidden". The other monk then answerd 
"My brother, I dropped her after we crossed the river, it is you that 
is holding on to her."...well thats how it goes, I think. It's been a 
long day and I don't like to leave loose ends untied. I'm done here, 
post if you want, but i just drop it.

send. 


/"enlightened"/






I'd say that 99.9 percent of the poets I know who slam, read each piece 
with paper in hand first, until they get their final edits down--I don't 
think that this is cheating, I think of it more like sparring, or having 
a scrimmage match, training for the regular season.

Also, some of the most successful poets I know who slam, also read off 
of paper at Nationals in at least one of the years that they competed.
And I watched Scott Woods in Minnieapolis, read off paper, and not just 
beat the Def Poets in the bout, but Hand it to them on a platter. He is 
a brilliant writer, doesn't even have to over perform.

In the end, it is all about getting published--you can be as successful 
as you want in slam, but it will only take you so far.  The poets that 
have moved beyond slam also happen to be really dope writers too.  And 
I'm not talking about traveling around the country 7 days a week pushing 
CDs and crashing on people's couches.  I'm talking College gigs that pay 
$$$ with padi air and hotel, Grants, Scholarships, fellowships, and 
actual books published by a real publisher.

It's like a person can be the best baseball, softball, basketball player 
in their school, but they's be a fool to count on that, training in 
another area in academics is a wise back up plan, because even if a 
person does make it to the Big League, what happens if they break their 
arm?  Slam celebrities have even a shorter life than that of an athlete. 

Instead of telling your kids it's cheating, tell them that it's duel 
training, so that they can play in any league. 
Or if you like video games, Role Playing, Duel Class
Mage/Monk

krystal ashe






THIS is why i joined this group....feedback!! since i cant pick your 
brains in person, this will have to do. but it would be nice to meet 
some of you one day. Edward, thanks for the great reply. and thanks 
to all those that replied. 

i want to do pieces from memory but i still get lost at some point. 
plus, i get nervous :-) i practice at work, at home, walking..etc. 
so, reading from paper seems the safest way to go. the poet that read 
from paper at Nationals last year, had the crowd howling because one 
of her pieces was about Saul Williams (if anyone was there and knows 
the poet or the piece...i want a copy of the poem). her delivery was 
nice but there wasnt a lot of emotion or the "physical" from which 
one gets from a piece delivered by memory.

im going to hit up the local open mic joints as practice...and keep 
working on putting the piece in my mental. i will just be sure to keep
the paper somewhere close! thanx group

onelove,
evan
Yoda's other lost student






WHOEVER THIS IS, YOU SAID " Reading from papers should be a 
disqualification. Papers are personal crutches and the poet should be 
strong enough to relate to the crowd and rock them sans the paper. Why 
is it in Poetry that we publicially allow the acceptance of performing 
with paper? This is why Slam seems weak when compared to other vocal 
competitions or performances. "

Wow. and double wow.
so, let me get this straight. we all 'write' (this would include 
typing for our advanced beyond the pen and paper members) our poems. 
therefore we all start off on your "crutch". then we are to drop those 
crutches and walk unaided? Is that what i am getting from your post?
and that if we do not do this, then we poetic cripples? Lepers? what?

You say "publicly" (not what yo usaid but what you meant to say) allow?

So poets should only read on paper from behind closed doors? And if so 
then in what room of what house?

I don't believe in talking shit I can't back up, nor typing someone to 
death, but I will ask a few questions of you, my strongly opinionated 
but slightly confused friend:

1- How have YOU done in slams with your memorized poems?

2- So when amiri baraka, nikki giovanni, saul williams, beau sia, 
sonia sanchez, and a slew of other great poets read OFF OF PAPER, as I 
have seen each of them do in slam and non slam situations, what should 
we do? Boo them? Hiss? Kick them out on their collective asses?

3- What streets are you walking on where people are dissing slam? Most 
streets i walk on the average joe doesn't know what the hell a slam is.

4- Is memorizing a poem going to get us treated and viewed as 
professionals 
OR OR OR OR OR OR 
-is WRITING and READING BETTER QUALITY POETRY??? (hmmm..I'll ask Billy 
Collins who rocks his shit from paper and seems to have done well in 
getting noticed and valued as a professional)

don't get me wrong, you are entitled to your opinion, BUT when your 
opinion reeks of dangerous closed mindedness in that good old ronald 
reagan Commie cold war scare type of way, I gotta speak up.

If the only or biggest thing hindering slammers from getting the 
respect they deserve and receiving an air of professionalism was a 
piece of paper in the hands of some young poet, then I guess the world 
would be a great place. 

however, as it stands, there are a ton of things that can be tweaked 
about the thing that slam has become, and i dare say that tar and 
feathering all paper poets who refuse to stay hidden or memorize is 
pretty low on that list....if at all. 

My two cents..(on second thought i'll keep my two cents..i don't think 
it owuld be wisely invested with comments like the ones you've made)

edmabrey
opening torpedo bay twelve
setting phaser to "what the fuck?"
darkside







ENLIGHTENED, you said,
>" All I'm hearing is intolerance and hate now on an opinion. I 
thought we were suppose to be united."

But didn't you basically deliver some form of hate, in slang or 
directly, and intolerance on the issue at hand?

Next, no one of these people attacked you with anything but that 
which you gave them (you teaching kids, comparing poetry and slam to 
theater actors/plays,etc)

so don't come now in the name of 'love'. That's the cheap way out. 
Own up to your words and be steadfast. I'll respect that alot more 
than what you are trying to pass off.

Now if you had said, 'I think all poets should memorize' or 
something to that effect towards the person who posted the qestion 
in the first place, i would not have had any problem with that. You 
are in fact, entitiled to your opinion. Most people can accept that. 
Hell, truth be told I would bet my pubic hairs that the majority of 
people on here would have AGREED with you, since the numbers in NPS 
could reflect that as well as all the conversations that go down.

The problem, or more to the point,the reason alot of peoples spider 
sense started tingling was because yo made a across the board, 
general, sweeping statement that is one of the PROBLEMS in slam.

Most people are not going to make a single dime off of slam. Most 
will never win or place high. Most will never be on any show, do any 
tour, get a book deal, or generally give a shit if they 
appear 'professional' enough.

What they will do is make some friends, share some experiences, 
hopefully get a newfound respect for others not like them (ahem), 
and by doing these things with poetry serving as the medium or 
conduit, spread poetry thru the lands to the people. (yes it sounds 
a bit grandiose but it is actually true)

that's why you got people's dander up dude.

I won't even touch what you are doing to the kids you teach but 
would like to know who you are and where you teach?

LASTLY, YOU SAID-

 "It's been a long day and I don't like to leave loose ends untied. 
I'm done here, post if you want, but i just drop it."

I wish it were so easy. problem is, not only have you skewed what 
could have been a neat little forum for poets on here, both old and 
new, to talk about a subject publicly that normally only gets 
discussed in small sects, but you have also put on the mind of poets 
on here, me included, what is going to happen to the kid who crosses 
your path and cannot or doesn't want to memorize their poem? Will we 
lose the next poet laureate? The poem that might have made someone 
not feel so alone?

I guess we will never know, since I am sure they will never speak up 
or out against you.

So, to close on a melodramatic note, a moment of silence for a young 
artist who will never touch a pen to paper for the sake of 
poetry..or worse yet, will write but never share the work for fear 
of being exorcised.....

...........

on second thought, scratch that. I think I will write that poem for 
them. If I make a team, I think I will bring it to Nats. On Paper.

/edmabrey/






Ed and everyone and anonymous person,
I think that we should look at what this person, is
actually saying.
They are talking only about slam, if i am 'reading'
correctly.
If that is the case, in many ways I agree.
Disqualification ? No.
Do I think memorization should be part of a slam (and
performance poets) basic discipline ? Hell yes I do.
Do I always have everything memorized ? No I don't.
Though I can tell you that I like, very much so,
someone who calls for a higher standard of discipline
in their artform.
This does not make that person a villain, anymore than
being lazy makes a person a villain.
Memorization, huh, what is it good for ?
absoloutely many things, if you think about it.
In every artisitic discipline some form of
memorization is required.
Whether that means teaching your body and mind to
memorize dance moves or katas or whether that means
memorizing scales and key and time signatures or
memorizing how to prepare a canvass or how to mix
materials for glazing pottery  etc.
I'm quite sure they don't have this argument in
theater circles, imagine Miles with one of those
little music holders attached to his horn. I never saw
Chuck D walk out with paper, maybe I missed  it.
The main thing about memorization is that it frees the
artist to practice their art unhindered by what i very
truly believe to be a barrier between said artist and
audience.
Patricia Smith, and i quote loosely, has said that
memorization is only the beginning of learning to
perform a poem, that after that you must "live with
the poem" in order to "get it in your DNA".
Last time I checked i didn't have any paper in my DNA.

Here's a last thought, I've been moved and made to
laugh and think by people who have read their stuff
off paper,  only poets that have performed their poems
from memory have made me cry.

Danny (no longer lurking) Solis



Is my inability to memorize evidence of my lack of 
discipline, or should I just stop performing now?

Tony






No, Tony, it's your CHOICE.
Last I heard, you were doing FINE as a poet (which I why I want you at my 
$500 invitational), rocking audiences exactly the way you choose to. It 
really, to me, depends on what the ~artist~ chooses, and that they want to 
get out of a performance, as much as what they're trying to bring to the 
audience.

I'm fortunate enough right now that I'm writing so much it would be almost 
impossible to memorize all my stuff. "course, I gots no team to worries 
about neither.

No wonder we get bitchy about page v. stage.

/G B/






If you read with paper make the words fly out of your mouth, hit the 
paper, bounce off it and then knock the people upside their heads. 

Who cares what other people think "touch one". That's all that 
matters.  

As for people who look down on Slam it's not because of "Paper Poets"
trust me. 

/harlemshawn/





thank you, G.

I was being sarcastic, of course; and as I've left slam behind (with 
the exception of a certain Buffalo show) for the most part, it's 
academic to me.  But overall, I am tired of a disrespect for nonconformists 
in the scene.

I have said it before, I'll say it again: this is one of the most 
conservative revolutionary arts movements ever.

T






>I have said it before, I'll say it again: this is one of the most 
conservative revolutionary arts movements ever.

Now Tony, how do you expect to be a radical artist if you don't sound 
just like the OTHER radical artists? That would be silly. THEY WILL 
KNOW YOU BY YOUR BERRET!!!

Personally, I think we should abandon all this "voice" stuff and just 
hold up placards with the words on 'em, one sentence at a time:

PLACARD ONE: 'I'm writing the poem that will save the world'

PLACARD TWO: 'and it's Lilly Wilson at my door'

etc. The poet doesn't even need to move. They can just stand there, 
and the host can run a pointer along the bottom of the words, so the 
audience can follow along. Except the illiterate, who would be 
discriminated against mercilessly.

V.- 






T, you asked "
Is my inability to memorize evidence of my lack of discipline".

First, as far as I remember & somebody involved in this debate, 
no one has said so. Maybe I am wrong, but for sure Dany did not. 

Dany's mail, you replied to, was another praise of memorization, which 
I think we all agree upon. Because we, who work from paper, have a handicap 
compared with those, who perform by heart. We know about this 
being a handicap, but there is not a single reason, why this should 
make us afraid of battling ..... what shall I say AGAINST vs WITH ? ..... 
poets, who work from memory.

There are different reasons, why people can't memorize. 
From those who can be talked about, like lazyness, to 
resulting from medication, as you threw into the ring. Somewhere 
in between is poor me, having tried & tried to memorize, with results 
next to nothing. Having given in to waste time with finding out 
wether the only true reson for this is lazyness or my writing style
without rhymes & other elements that are very counterprducitve 
for memorising almost any of them. And is the latter real or just a 
clever argument

And we all know or at least have seen, there is different ways 
to deal with the lack of this advantage. Those without prejudices 
towards working/workers/worked from the paper, also know that 
working from memorization makes nobody a better writter 
than those, who perform from the paper.

And by reading Dany's mail, it "sounds" like he knows to differ 
between these, can identify clouds & look through them 
to a whole bunch of facets from the whole picture.


Maybe we should ask Taalam Acey to join in this debate, for I read that
he writes things down only after they are composed, worked over, 
changed & tried out & ..... That would be interesting, hopefully 
for the anonymous person, too. For Taalam being somebody, who 
not only performs from memorization but also makes complex poems 
without writing, might shine a light on this, that might turn out to be 
the final statement.


Second, like mentioned before, you already explained why you are 
not able to memorize for about five years. So to me, your question has 
a little rethoric punch humming along.

Please don't stop performing now. And in case you like challenge, 
you could try to make Dany cry, straight to/from the paper.


Respectfully,

andré






It is easy to trust you, if one knows/feels that you are right :-)


Okay, your mail is not a perfect 10. And here's my reason why :

you wrote :
> If you read with paper make the words fly out of your mouth, 
hit the paper, bounce off it and then knock the people upside their heads. 

So you either don't know or held back the little trick, 
at least for those who manage to memorize at least one line, 
that tells how to make the words not jump back to the page 
again & then get bouncing unexpectedways :  

Adjust your mouth to the audience, while downloading 
the memorized line to your vocal devices & let them do their job. 
Make your eyes go along with your mouth as long as you manage, 
before they need to scan the next part. Don't forget to train, 
otherwise you might get dizzy, especially if you are a short liner.

Aside of this, I once got hit from behind, though I am tall
it hit me in the right shoulder, instead the upside of my head. 
But this was maybe due to strange acoustic conditions :- D

And not to mention that I don't understand what you are saying 
in the second stanza. But well, the bones seem to be the third.


Respectfully,

andré






>> As for people who look down on Slam it's not because of "Paper Poets"
trust me. <<<

Yes, I fogot to add that to my post.

THe people I know who look down on slam do so because the writing is so 
crappy and the same note, people spend more time memorizing, then making 
sure that they are writing something original or sincere.

Also, Each year I've had people make my slam team who have read with 
paper in hand--and I come from Chicago, where slam was born--In my 
opinion, slam can be anything in 3 minutes, it's up to the judges and 
the audience to let the poet know how they did.  Chicago's audience has 
always been open to different things--Hence Mike K the Sonnet guy who 
made the Green Mill team.

But that said, once people made the team, we worked our hardest to get 
them to memorize their shit.  For most people it is just getting over th 
efirst time they forget a line, and see that they can pick it back up, 
and then their fears go away.

Still, there has been a couple times at Nationals, while in competition 
you know that the bout is calling for a certain kinda of piece to score 
well, and a poet on your team is working on one, but they will have to 
read it off of paper, so you throw them up like that. . .You let your 
poets and their work breathe with the room. The best Example of this for 
me is Beau Sia in Seattle 2001, the first serious poem I ever saw him 
do, was with paper in hand, and I believe he got a standing O at Semis

Also, for local slams, if you disqualified people for reading with paper 
in hand, you'd really cut down on the amount of new people taking your 
mic, esp women.
Krystal






Hey Everyone,

hope all is well.
My first slam I read off a paper, and I read a piece I had just written. 
After that I memorized anything I took to slam, so I could have the freedom to 
gesture with my hands, which is a way to enhance a poem in my opinion, a little 
whipped cream or hot fudge.
But then I had a storke and I can honestly tell you, while I am completely 
comfortable with reading newer pieces I cannot seem to memorize them which 
results in redundency on my part and is a reason I got out of slam. I did not what 
to feel uncomfortable reading from page and I did not want to bring old poems 
to the stage repeatedly.
Slam is a artform form for sight and sound. I always felt that if a person 
could convey a depth of feeling that was moving with a paper in their hand they 
were extremely skilled. And if they could put aside all theatrics and simply 
make the audience feel the emotion of the poem with their voice alone, well 
that was miraculous.
I would rather have a poet get on stage with a paper and smoothly relay a 
poem through voice than to stumble over mishaps in memorization. Recitation from 
page is a skill that can be honed just as well as a memorized performance and 
neither is invalid.

love to all, angela boyce 






Hi peeps. Elliot Harmon here, formerly of Omaha, currently of San
Francisco.

In the year-and-four-months-or-so that I've been seriously involved
with Slam, I have never performed on page. And this is not because I
think that memorization improves performance. It's because paper makes
me very, very, very nervous. I get scared. I lose my place. I look at
the audience too long and lose my place again. It's pathetic. So for
me, it's a necessity to perform without it, just like some people have
been saying it's a necessity to perform with it.

Paper doesn't have to be a drawback at all. A lot of the best
performers out there, Slam and otherwise, read everything off of the
page. They perform in a way that ACCEPTS the page--embraces it, even.
They don't hide it. They don't look away from it too long. Or do that
terrible thing a lot of beginning performers do where they start every
line looking on the page and end every line looking at the audience.
The page becomes an extension of the poet. I wish I could perform like
that. I do. I've tried.

Oh, and to refer to a message way back in this discussion, good poetry
has a lot more in common with pro wrestling than with "real" wrestling.

/Elliot H/






See DANNY, now THAT I can feel and agree with to a great extent..teh 
way you put it was cool. not overbearing, not anything that would 
cause me concern in regards to how a cat new to this who has come on 
here looking for answers might be made to feel less than others...no 
problemo.

it was teh way and wording in which it was delievered on here that 
bothered me.

as for teh paper not in your dna? i will have a joke for that as 
soon as i get some sleep my man.... :)

/edmabrey/






Here...Hear!  In witnessing the talents of Tony Brown read his poems 
from a page, there are many poets that could learn from his 
abilities to write, articulate, express passion and connect with an 
audience with page in hand.  He certainly can reach minds with his 
words better than many poets that memorize and "spit bullshit".

If you feel disgusted that a poet needs a page at times, take this 
quote to heart.  In an interview with Albert Einstien, a Life 
Magazine reporter asked him for his phone number so he could set up 
a follow up interview.  Einstein grabbed the phone book and looked 
up his own number and gave it to him.  When asked why the man that 
developed the theory of relativity and all of these intricate 
equations could not remember his own phone number, he replied, "It 
is an intellegent man that knows where to get information, not 
necessarily store it."  

If a poet has 10, 20, 30, poems memorized but does not rehearse them 
constantly to keep them fresh, it is understandable a page to help 
refresh the memory might be needed.  I'm willing to bet a good or 
great actor does not have every line from every play/show/movie 
memorized forever.  Use it or loose it.  I've known touring poets 
that get requests for pieces they have taken out of their repetoire 
only to pull out a chapbook and read it to accomodate the request 
and still deliver it with sharp intensity.  It's all about being one 
with your poem no matter what stage of existence it is in.  

Gracias,

Bob Whoopeecat Stephenson






You honor me, Bob.  Thank you.

Tony






This is why I encourage my team members to
memorize. 

For most people, it's easier to connect with the
audience and be physically expressive when your hands
are free.  As my yoga teachers says, 'your body
follows the eyes', and I want my team members
directing their performance toward the audience, not
the page.

Plenty of poets have done well reading off page. 
Past poets on teams I've coached have done very well
reading off page.  Eitan Kadosh comes to mind.

My job as coach is to eliminate variables.  One of
those variables is the random judge who will score you
lower for reading off page, no matter how skilled you
are.  It really isn't worth it to lose one judge for a
new or unmemorized poem unless you have a true mental
block.

chaz
berkeley