Slam History

The poetry slam, or competitive poetry reading, was created by the Chicago poet Marc Smith at the Green Mill, a bar in Chicago, in 1986. Smith, a steelworker with a poetic bent, was fed up with poetry being the private toy of the academics, who he felt had so whitewashed and over-intellectualized poetry that it was no longer a form of expression for the people, whom , after all, invented poetry in the first place. He began holding poetry readings in the Green Mill, with a ten-dollar prize for the best poet of the night, picked by random judges in the audience.

The fad caught on. Soon it was an all-Chicago event, then regional, then national, and, finally, an international meeting of poets from around the world, with prizes in the five-figure range and book contracts to be fought over. CDs have been made about the movement (Grand Slam! was the first), and even some movies now exist, including indie sensation "Slam." Slam poetry, with its emphasis on performance, voice and presence, has re-vitalized poetry beyond Smith's dreams. It was only a matter of time before this potent tool of self-expression combined with another tool of communication that grew up in the eighties and nineties, the Internet.

The first online poetry slam, to our knowledge, was held on America Online on May, 26, 1996 in the Anima Poetry Room, with Stirring's own John Turner emerging victorious. Other slams caught on online, including Calliope's short-lived Ballroom Slam along with one held in Poet's Place. The longest lived of these slams, however, was the Warner Brother's Insomniacs Asylum, which was hosted by John Turner, as well as a number of other Asylum regular hosts. By this time the Anima room slam, sponsored by Simon and Schuster, was winding down, to be closed in early 1999. The Insomniac's Slam was likewise closed in February of 2000, when Warner Brother's pulled out of the slam circuit.

Thus the Sundress Slam was brought to life. Held every Wednesday at 8:00PM EST, Sundress's Poetry Slam consists of two poets in head-to-head bouts for the rights to have their work appear at Sundress Publications. To find out more about this slam, be sure to read our House Rules.


So You Wanna Slam . . . ?

Host John Heckman will pick two poets, and often an alternate, to slam each week. Poets are typically chosen from those published in Stirring, Samsara, or Sometimes City, but we are open to any writers who are interested in competing; we ask, though, that you have at least submitted to one of Sundress's publications. We also suggest that you attend a slam before you compete so as to garner a better idea of slam etiquette.

Each poet needs three good poems to slam with. It does not matter if the pieces have been published or submitted somewhere (even to one of Sundress Publications). We do not take rights to the works read in the slam room or works that appear on the slam site.

There is no length limit, but each competitor has only three minutes to get their entire poem posted into the slam room. Obviously, this would be a great time to make use of one of the macro programs that allows fast uploading. We recommend Swiftkeys or Keyboard Express, which you can get off many Shareware sites. Otherwise we ask that poets use only short poems in competition.

The room host, as well as two or three cohorts, who can and often do include editors from Sundress's many publications, will score poetry between 0 (blah!) and 20 points (Absojehosophatinlutely incredible!) The scores are kept strictly secret -- we are are not in the ego building or busting business.

Everyone will be told by the evening's host, John Heckman, what order the poets are reading in and when it is their turn to read.

We ask that members do not chat while a poem is being sent to the chat room. While the poems are being scored, the room will be open to chat and comment. We encourage competitors to bring a cheering section -- what fun is it to win if you don't have others to spray you with virtual champagne? But we do ask that members of the room refrain from negative comments. We also ask that audience members steer away from making critique suggestions in the slam room; this is not the proper avenue for such opinion.

At the end of the evening, the poet with the most points is declared the winner, and their highest scored poem will appear on this page to remain eternally in the Sundress Hall of Fame. (Fame and fortune follow shortly. Just ask!)