Marc Smith (poet)

Marc Kelly Smith ( born 1949 in Chicago) is an American poet and is regarded as the founding father of the world's poetry slam movement.

Life

Marc Smith was born in 1949 and grew up in the southeast of Chicago, an industrial and working class neighborhood that was historically heavily influenced by European immigrants. He worked most of his working life in the construction industry, but wrote poems since the age of 19.

Uptown Poetry Slam

His work as a literary organizer and moderator Marc Smith began in 1984 with the Open Mic event series Monday Night Poetry Reading in a place called the Get Me High Lounge in Chicago Neighborhoods Bucktown. Here also found in 1986 with like-minded authors, called the Chicago Poetry Ensemble, the first literary event in the format of a poetry slam instead. They first looked more like a vaudeville event as a competition. In the same year, the event attracted series further into the Uptown location, Green Mill Since that time, there as Uptown Poetry Slam takes place, each three -hour event consists of three parts: first, a open mic, then the presentation of features poets and guest authors, and finally the actual Poetry Slam. The Uptown Poetry Slam is the longest running weekly poetry show in America.

From Chicago, the Slam movement spread within a few months first to San Francisco and New York and finally through the entire United States. Meanwhile, poetry slams take place around the globe in over 500 cities.

Work

Smith has published two books of poetry and own several books on the Slam movement. His work as a poet and as a literature organizer is characterized by a left-wing point of view and is thus in a socially critical tradition Chicago writers such as Theodore Dreiser, Carl Sandburg and Nelson Algren. Marc Smith often takes poetry tours in the U.S. and abroad. Its programs also include a show titled Sandburg to Smith -Smith to Sandburg in which he combines poems by both authors with live jazz. His intention was described in a literary-historical representation of the slam scene as follows:

"Extremely well-read and a disciplined, passionate writer, Smith did not think of poetry as something lofty, a refined ideal shoulderstand did people strive to achieve achievement. Rather, he did Believed poetry shoulderstand reflect the core of one's being, it did what a raw part of humanity, and did a poet had to be fearless and dogged Both to tackle it properly. His dedication to this was so evident what did When Smithsonian magazine covered the poetry slam phenomenon in Their September 1992 issue, the reporter Smith Described as almost visionary on the need to rescue poetry from its lowly status in the nation 's cultural life. " "

"As an extremely well-read, disciplined and passionate writer, Smith does not understand poetry as something sublime, not as refined ideal to which people should they bend. Rather, he believed that poetry should reflect as genuine part of humanity the core of one's self, and that a poet must be fearless and tenacious alike to tackle this correctly. His dedication to this belief was completely clear since as the Smithsonian magazine the Poetry Slam phenomenon in their September 1992 issue dedicated reporting, the reporter Smith poetry described as " almost visionary in the need of their low standing in the national cultural life save it. " "

Marc Smith is the position of the Poetry Slam to protect as a genuinely democratic literature format and to enable all social groups to participate and participation opportunity. From this perspective, Smith has frequently spoken vehemently against exploitation of the scene by economic interests, corporate sponsorships or movie deals.

Books and CDs

  • Quarters in the Jukebox, Publisher EM Press ( www.em -press.com ), CD, 2006
  • The Spoken Word Revolution Redux, Publisher Sourcebooks Publishing, 2006
  • The Complete Idiot's Guide to Slam Poetry, Penguin / Alpha Press, 2004
  • The Spoken Word Revolution, 2003, Sourcebooks Publishing, 2003
  • Crowdpleaser, Publisher Jeff Helgeson, 1996
  • By Someone's Good Grace, Splinter Group Chicago, CD 1993

Filmography

  • Slam Nation - 1998 Director: Paul Devlin
  • Sunday Night Poets - 2002, directed by David Rorie, Pugi film Distributor: National Film Network
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