Slam poetry is not a tea party.
As such, one should not come expecting to sit properly and nod at all the appropriate moments. Slam poetry’s success is very much dependent on the crowd’s interaction &mdash as one of the artists from Wednesday night put it, everyone should act like they are in church. Loud, spoken agreement, rhythmic clapping and even exclamations of “Amen” from time to time are not out of place. Unfortunately the crowd did not completely understand this principle at the beginning of Wednesday’s “Diction Divas” event, hosted by the Central Program Council’s Women’s Coordinating Council. Thankfully, the veteran artists were there to coach guests away from their original assumptions. Three women performed spoken word pieces. They began with a group piece and then moved on to alternating their individual ones. As it turns out, Iyeoka Okoawo, Amalia Ortiz and Ishle Park are all very good and very different types of artists. Of course all three have the backgrounds of different cultures. (They all have immigrant parents.) But their overall styles are fairly dissimilar. Okoawo, who has a CD out, features a lot of music in her work, as well as seemingly a lot of improvisational parts. Ortiz is almost the opposite with no singing (though many of her pieces are quite rhythmic and encourage certain groovitational movements) and reading more than performing. Lastly there was Park, who relied mostly on a strong narrative in her poems, visual imagery and comedy. The group piece and first rotation of the three seemed almost boring. While it is was true each artist had a story to tell or an emotion to convey, the overall effect lacked any kind of excitement or the electricity that typically permeates such performances. It turned out to be too bad for those who got up and left after this initial disappointment, though.
Okoawo, before beginning one poem, informed the crowd that they were part of the equation as well. She encouraged audience members to shout out and make affirming noises when they heard something they liked. She explained to them that slam poetry was a dialogue and if the people listening didn’t get emotionally invested, then the whole performance would suffer. From this point onward, with the crowd encouraging all three artists, the event became very entertaining and thought-provoking.