An Insight of Slam Poetry

By:Sara Io

An Insight of Slam Poetry

“Be the voice for the voiceless, open up the blind spots that everyone’s avoiding.”, with poetry. Recently, we had a slam poet, Luka Lesson, come to visit us, to teach us about a whole new world about slam poetry. I was lucky to get a chance to interview with him, and he gave interesting information about his insights on slam poetry. He has a lot of experience in the slam poetry community. His perspective on how poetry could impact the world are both fascinating and inspiring.

Luka Lesson is originally from Brisbane, Australia. Although his heritage is from Greece. He started as a hip-hop artist who eventually became interested in rapping and in playing around with words. When he started to notice and realize that there was a competition mixed with rapping and words, it started out as a hobby. Until he went to the Slam Poetry competition in Australia, and won, he became a full-time poet. Luka Lesson considers himself as a “conscious hip hop artist.”

The concept of Slam Poetry originated from Chicago, Illinois in the 1980’s. The local poet and construction worker felt that poetry had lost its true passion. The poet created an event at local public areas every week called the Poetry Slam, where anyone could share their poetry. The poem could be about any issue in the world or their family issues. Each week there would be 5 brave poets to present their poem. There would be judges from the audience who would rate  each contestant’s poem and whoever had the highest score from the judges, won. Any poet who performed could sing or rap the poem however they could not have any musical accompaniment during the performance. One of the main differences between regular poems and a slam poem is the presentation of the poem. Many poets don’t sing or rap their poem; they might just recite it in front of a large audience. In a slam poem, there are many different ways to present a poem. The event started to spread through the United States and the news spread around the world eventually becoming a worldwide competition.

Mr. Lesson has had 14 years of educating the younger society about slam poetry. His main advice for young, aspiring poets is to write about things everyone’s avoiding. During my interview with him, Luka Lesson says that poets live in a blind spot and they notice these things everyone steers away from and what poets do to open up the blind spots in the community is to write a poem. This was advice for young poets but also how to make an impact on the world. It was to face what no one was facing and to spread the word about things humans could improve upon through poetry.

To write a slam poem that was meaningful and impactful, you had to start with the process and the topic. Luka Lesson says that the poems lead him once he starts writing down his ideas. His poems range from family topics to social justice and global issues. And depending on what he writes about, he needed to research and choose the media or the way he was going to perform his poem. There are many steps, many different processes that a slam poet has to go through to make their poem as perfect as it could be, as impactful as it could be. He also said that his goal wasn’t to be popular or how much applause he gets. But it was the deep impact that he could make in someone else’s life.

In my opinion, the presentation of the poem is how the person gets hooked into the poem and how the audience really listens to what the poem is about. If you listen to Luka Lesson’s poems, some might be rapped or sung or simply spoken. But, to choose the method of presentation, it was important to know what the subject was about. Rapping was a fast way and different way to recite a poem, but the slam poet says that rapping could be insincere with a sensitive poem. For a poem to be sung or recited, it was a poem that the poet wanted the audience to hear and listen to carefully.

Slam poetry was a new way to present poetry. It was a way to make a difference in the world by entertainment and educating people. I think that the concept of slam poetry opened up a whole new perspective on poetry.