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Rhode
Island Review
POETRY
SLAM II
at
Redwood Library
On Wednesday, November 18, from 6 to
8 p.m., Redwood Library welcomed performance
poets from throughout Rhode Island in Redwood’s second poetry slam of the
year. Like the first poetry slam in May of this year, which required overflow
seating, had poets shouting through the hallowed halls of Redwood Library,
and saw audience members laughing out loud and rethinking their notions
of what poetry should be.
Those unfamiliar with poetry slams are pleasantly
surprised by their content. Poets compete in elimination rounds by performing
their poetry. Judges, selected randomly from the audience, give Olympic-style
scores to poets based half on content and half on performance. As a result,
poets work hard to give life to their poetry. The first poetry slam at
Redwood Library brought stories about family histories, the fantasies of
a would-be nudist, and the antics of an art gallery come to life. November’s
slam brought back some of those same performers and a few new ones. If
you had avoided poetry readings in the past for fear of nodding off, this
event will forever have changed your mind about what poetry can be.
A poetry slam is exciting, enlightening, and entertaining, and it returns
poetry to the performance arena.
The poetry slam at Redwood was preceded by an open
reading for any poets in the audience who might be squeamish about offering
their poems up to a 1 to 10 scale. Everyone was welcome to attend and to
participate!
co-sponsored
by the Rhode Island Review
(formerly
the Newport Review)
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