[Music]
we’re here to talk about poetry though
I’m guessing in some of your minds
you’re like that’s not a really cool
thing to hear on a Sunday afternoon if
there’s one way I grew up knowing that
if there’s one way to put someone to
sleep read a poem to them for kids read
nursery rhymes for teenagers read
Tennyson I have a simple question for
you today what do you think of when you
think about poetry some of us we might
think of textbooks or exams or teachers
some of us we might think of our
favorite poems maybe a poem we loved in
high school and unfortunately for a lot
of us the words boring dense pretentious
they might come to mind when we think
about poetry but I know for sure that
when most of us we think of poetry the
first image that comes to our minds is
that now but that’s a fine bone that’s a
good poem but it’s also a Steve your
typical pool see a speaker your typical
pool is a box almost every line is the
same length
pretty much every line has a rhyming
counterpart now this is not me speaking
this is Google see I didn’t design this
for your benefit I simply googled the
word poem and this was turned out that’s
what Google thinks poetry is now this is
funny but why do I have a problem with
this the reason I have a problem with
this is because for a lot of us we think
that poetry starts and ends with that in
a little box so we go through our lives
and there’s this sort of stigma around
poetry that poetry is boring poetry is
scary poetry is not for normal people
like
like you with me poetry maybe for our
grandfathers or their grandfathers but
certainly what does a 22 year old Indian
have to do with poetry so I grew up
thinking that there are only two things
to poetry one it has to rhyme so if your
pool does not rhyme you could not
convince me it’s a poem
whatever you said do if a poem does not
send you running for the dictionary it’s
not a good poem I don’t care who the
poor it is if I’m not happy having to
look up every word I read it’s a bad
poem so you can say happy you have to
say jocular you can’t say today I feel
happy you have to say on this day
I ducked feel Felicity and then I came
across this thing this thing called slam
poetry for those of you who don’t know
slam poetry is basically performance
poetry poetry that’s written to be
performed for an audience and the first
time I saw a slam poetry video on
YouTube I’ll never forget that a it
smashed open the mind it smashed open
the possibilities of what poetry is and
could be suddenly poetry was in
textbooks or dictionaries poetry wasn’t
trying sport she was living and
breathing speaking to me poetry was
relevant poetry was real and I found
that beautiful after slam poetry my
definition of poetry changed when I
think about poetry I don’t think about
pretentious or dance or boring I now
think of the image of a poet on stage
laying his emotions bare for the
audience to see taking risks speaking
truths speaking his emotion to the
audience and dance
that’s what slam poetry is for me so let
me take you back to the year 1984 in the
year 1984 a blue-collar worker a
construction worker who goes by the name
of Mark Kelly Smith gave birth to the
slam
Oh a tree movement now for those of you
who do it knows poetry slams are
competitive events but the poets come up
and perform their poems and judges are
selected randomly from the audience now
the thing about my Kelly Smith was he
was a construction worker and a poet
pretty bad combination right and we are
talking about 1984 America when the only
way to be a certified fold but the few
got your works published in little
magazines and journals and dare a
construction worker must try to get his
works published in one of these and this
was the case with poetry all across the
world it became this precious thing in
ivory towers which the academia fought
to protect and normal people like Hugh
and I did not have a chance to enter the
sacred trend and this is what Mark Kelly
Smith wanted to break he went to poetry
readings and libraries where the poets
would read out their poems from the
books and the audience after he was done
would clap mechanically for him he hated
this for a simple reason that the poet
did not feel the need to earn
appreciation of his audience so Mark
Kelly Smith along with a bunch of
fearless powerful poets walked into the
get me high lounged lounge and gave
birth to poetry slam now when you
picture get me high lunge do not picture
this polite TEDx stage by the worst
thing that could happen to me is that I
forget my words and you clap softly big
deal but when you picture get me high
lounge picture people sitting in the
cafe who are not there for poetry in
fact so some people poetry was an
unwelcome distraction
but this put actual pressure on the
performers because now if a boy
performed badly he’d be booed off the
stage he’d be sued off the stage he’d be
thrown off the stage and for all he knew
he’d even be threw in bottles at it’s
just a good situation for a poet having
this genuine fear of being booed off the
stage
yes because this made him consider his
audience
it made him consider the people who were
sitting in front of him because it now
broke the wall of separation between the
poet and the audience and this open
doors of poetry
it brought poetry back to the people and
it’s because of this defining ethos
this realness this actuality this sense
of bringing people bringing poetry back
to the people that poetry slams are not
thriving in more than 100 countries in
the world and that’s that’s the image
that defines slam poetry for me nothing
else but the image of these eight poets
back in Chicago back in 1984 having to
jump and shout and dance on stage just
to get the audience’s attention as a
poet it made poetry more due to yours
it gave poetry back to people like me
and you see growing up I always thought
that the only things you can write
poetry about our nature or my ecology or
important topics that mattered but after
I found slam poetry I found you can
write you can write about anything you
can write about cricket or football or
chocolate you can write about getting
bored while sitting on the last bench of
class but you could also write about
loneliness and depression and anxiety
you could write about coming out of the
closet about friendship you could write
about activism suddenly you could write
about anything that mattered to you that
affected you personally that changed
your life
spoken word and slam poetry became this
mouthpiece this loud speaker and this
slam poetry is often criticized because
people say that a lot of poetry slams
are dominated by oppressed communities
or minority communities and while that’s
a criticism I honestly see that as one
of the most beautiful things about slam
poetry that it provides a stage for
people who have no other place to speak
up for people who can’t turn to the
mainstream media to guys who can’t pay
off the government it’s people like this
who mean that’s the agent this is what
slam poetry gives them so when I see
poetry I don’t see textbooks I save this
what do you think about when you think
about poetry in Jordan let me take you
there back to 2013 – one of the oldest
neighborhoods in Jordan – a brightly lit
room furniture lines the walls a few
people sit on the floor in the center of
the room and a poet stands at the end
she opens her mouth and begins to speak
tell your governments she says tell your
governments the only Kingdom my
generation will bow to is the one
between our temples for it is the most
compassionate Authority we have ever
known this this is the underground
female slam poetry scene in Jordan
I shall one of the organizers of this
poetry slam she says in an interview
that the reason they love it is because
it’s the only place that a woman can
talk about liberation and politics and
sexuality and no one is shocked this is
the one place where they can be
themselves what do you think about when
you think about poetry and dress he’ll
let me take you there – an old
amphitheatre where a group of slam poets
are huddled up listening to one another
perform their forms at the end of the
night a man walks up on stage he doesn’t
perform a poem he tells the crowd that
he’s been working with kids in some of
the most dangerous neighborhoods in
Brazil and he tells them never stop
never stop performing because we are the
bridges that can cross any River this is
what I see when I see slam poetry
why do you picture when you picture
poetry in the u.s. go back to 1984 or
2000 or as recent
2016 picture said of young black boys or
queer poets or trans people or prison
inmates telling their story just as it
is no sugarcoating nothing when Saul
Williams one of the most respected poets
across the world talks about slam poetry
he does not talk about the competition
or the prize he talks about a home for
young black boys to find their voice to
express themselves to find meaning in
life at this time when you hear stories
every week of black men being shot on
the streets that’s when you realize the
importance for them to find a place to
find whom at this time in India when you
hear stories every week of women being
raped or molested when you hear stories
of men being beaten up or queer poets
queer people fighting for their rights
that’s when you realize the importance
of slam poetry of people finding a place
for themselves finding whom so we are
done with our talk but it would be a
shame if we left the stage without
performing a poetry the here it is
louder than silence louder than songs
louder than anger louder than tear drops
out of the nightmares louder than feel
louder than failure louder than fire out
of them between chimes of despair louder
than the smooth hard off regret louder
than the alarm clock of surprise louder
than the high-pitched howl of death
louder than a red mark on a tenth
standard report card louder than the
escaping sobs from a teenager’s broken
heart louder than the cries of a mother
she tries to close with stab wounds on
her daughter’s bleeding dressed louder
than the explosion of brick and mortar
track bones torn eyelid split flesh
there are times there are always times
clenched fists and closed eyes of broken
watches and
there are times of fleas on the floor of
begging for forgiveness having nowhere
to cool off wishing someone would give
you a chance to do it all again
there are times black skies and 4 times
when the snakes twist themselves around
your body and squeeze the air out like
toothpaste when you look in the mirror
and the mirror tells you it’s not worth
it and the mirror tells you you’re not
worth it and the mirror tells you to
slow down just stay down to give up
so give oh so good dust down cool oh
nine oh nine
Oh Oh Jean oh gee oh gee Oh breathe
breathe breathe breathe
is that all time the universe tells you
it’s wiser to stay down to keep your bad
stuff to the try and it’s at these times
you must look that you must shake off
its a deist time that you must punch the
universe in its god damn God wrestle the
dead stars in black sky because you are
here and you remain now that unbe
apocalypse louder than a thunderstorm
louder than the bang bang bang of ten
thousand member firing school louder
than the house your heart heard when the
clock tick down to zero
dad the scars on your knuckles from your
punches on the walls from the voices in
your head telling you you’re not good
enough then the scratches on crash cars
in which you’ve hidden all your love
then the falling Twin Towers and the
everyday air strikes the broken windows
and burning trails then the clashing
cries for help under 100 feet waves and
the soundtrack of Aleppo’s thousand a
death then splitting crossroads and the
crumbling bridges and the cracking
buildings new
then the last gasp of a child his eyes
are brown
who takes one last cup of seawater oh he
gives up his long stairs eyes closed and
his heart drowns louder than the angle
louder than the be louder than the pity
louder than the hate nodded under Sandra
then the sound of falling rocks than the
railing ruined closets
then the ticking of the clock because
there are times when the world turns to
and the sky goes dark and the
snakes beats the Angels but remember
always remember to let the light inside
your mind speak louder than the worms
inside your brain because you are here
you are here and you me thank you
you
we’re here to talk about poetry though
I’m guessing in some of your minds
you’re like that’s not a really cool
thing to hear on a Sunday afternoon if
there’s one way I grew up knowing that
if there’s one way to put someone to
sleep read a poem to them for kids read
nursery rhymes for teenagers read
Tennyson I have a simple question for
you today what do you think of when you
think about poetry some of us we might
think of textbooks or exams or teachers
some of us we might think of our
favorite poems maybe a poem we loved in
high school and unfortunately for a lot
of us the words boring dense pretentious
they might come to mind when we think
about poetry but I know for sure that
when most of us we think of poetry the
first image that comes to our minds is
that now but that’s a fine bone that’s a
good poem but it’s also a Steve your
typical pool see a speaker your typical
pool is a box almost every line is the
same length
pretty much every line has a rhyming
counterpart now this is not me speaking
this is Google see I didn’t design this
for your benefit I simply googled the
word poem and this was turned out that’s
what Google thinks poetry is now this is
funny but why do I have a problem with
this the reason I have a problem with
this is because for a lot of us we think
that poetry starts and ends with that in
a little box so we go through our lives
and there’s this sort of stigma around
poetry that poetry is boring poetry is
scary poetry is not for normal people
like
like you with me poetry maybe for our
grandfathers or their grandfathers but
certainly what does a 22 year old Indian
have to do with poetry so I grew up
thinking that there are only two things
to poetry one it has to rhyme so if your
pool does not rhyme you could not
convince me it’s a poem
whatever you said do if a poem does not
send you running for the dictionary it’s
not a good poem I don’t care who the
poor it is if I’m not happy having to
look up every word I read it’s a bad
poem so you can say happy you have to
say jocular you can’t say today I feel
happy you have to say on this day
I ducked feel Felicity and then I came
across this thing this thing called slam
poetry for those of you who don’t know
slam poetry is basically performance
poetry poetry that’s written to be
performed for an audience and the first
time I saw a slam poetry video on
YouTube I’ll never forget that a it
smashed open the mind it smashed open
the possibilities of what poetry is and
could be suddenly poetry was in
textbooks or dictionaries poetry wasn’t
trying sport she was living and
breathing speaking to me poetry was
relevant poetry was real and I found
that beautiful after slam poetry my
definition of poetry changed when I
think about poetry I don’t think about
pretentious or dance or boring I now
think of the image of a poet on stage
laying his emotions bare for the
audience to see taking risks speaking
truths speaking his emotion to the
audience and dance
that’s what slam poetry is for me so let
me take you back to the year 1984 in the
year 1984 a blue-collar worker a
construction worker who goes by the name
of Mark Kelly Smith gave birth to the
slam
Oh a tree movement now for those of you
who do it knows poetry slams are
competitive events but the poets come up
and perform their poems and judges are
selected randomly from the audience now
the thing about my Kelly Smith was he
was a construction worker and a poet
pretty bad combination right and we are
talking about 1984 America when the only
way to be a certified fold but the few
got your works published in little
magazines and journals and dare a
construction worker must try to get his
works published in one of these and this
was the case with poetry all across the
world it became this precious thing in
ivory towers which the academia fought
to protect and normal people like Hugh
and I did not have a chance to enter the
sacred trend and this is what Mark Kelly
Smith wanted to break he went to poetry
readings and libraries where the poets
would read out their poems from the
books and the audience after he was done
would clap mechanically for him he hated
this for a simple reason that the poet
did not feel the need to earn
appreciation of his audience so Mark
Kelly Smith along with a bunch of
fearless powerful poets walked into the
get me high lounged lounge and gave
birth to poetry slam now when you
picture get me high lunge do not picture
this polite TEDx stage by the worst
thing that could happen to me is that I
forget my words and you clap softly big
deal but when you picture get me high
lounge picture people sitting in the
cafe who are not there for poetry in
fact so some people poetry was an
unwelcome distraction
but this put actual pressure on the
performers because now if a boy
performed badly he’d be booed off the
stage he’d be sued off the stage he’d be
thrown off the stage and for all he knew
he’d even be threw in bottles at it’s
just a good situation for a poet having
this genuine fear of being booed off the
stage
yes because this made him consider his
audience
it made him consider the people who were
sitting in front of him because it now
broke the wall of separation between the
poet and the audience and this open
doors of poetry
it brought poetry back to the people and
it’s because of this defining ethos
this realness this actuality this sense
of bringing people bringing poetry back
to the people that poetry slams are not
thriving in more than 100 countries in
the world and that’s that’s the image
that defines slam poetry for me nothing
else but the image of these eight poets
back in Chicago back in 1984 having to
jump and shout and dance on stage just
to get the audience’s attention as a
poet it made poetry more due to yours
it gave poetry back to people like me
and you see growing up I always thought
that the only things you can write
poetry about our nature or my ecology or
important topics that mattered but after
I found slam poetry I found you can
write you can write about anything you
can write about cricket or football or
chocolate you can write about getting
bored while sitting on the last bench of
class but you could also write about
loneliness and depression and anxiety
you could write about coming out of the
closet about friendship you could write
about activism suddenly you could write
about anything that mattered to you that
affected you personally that changed
your life
spoken word and slam poetry became this
mouthpiece this loud speaker and this
slam poetry is often criticized because
people say that a lot of poetry slams
are dominated by oppressed communities
or minority communities and while that’s
a criticism I honestly see that as one
of the most beautiful things about slam
poetry that it provides a stage for
people who have no other place to speak
up for people who can’t turn to the
mainstream media to guys who can’t pay
off the government it’s people like this
who mean that’s the agent this is what
slam poetry gives them so when I see
poetry I don’t see textbooks I save this
what do you think about when you think
about poetry in Jordan let me take you
there back to 2013 – one of the oldest
neighborhoods in Jordan – a brightly lit
room furniture lines the walls a few
people sit on the floor in the center of
the room and a poet stands at the end
she opens her mouth and begins to speak
tell your governments she says tell your
governments the only Kingdom my
generation will bow to is the one
between our temples for it is the most
compassionate Authority we have ever
known this this is the underground
female slam poetry scene in Jordan
I shall one of the organizers of this
poetry slam she says in an interview
that the reason they love it is because
it’s the only place that a woman can
talk about liberation and politics and
sexuality and no one is shocked this is
the one place where they can be
themselves what do you think about when
you think about poetry and dress he’ll
let me take you there – an old
amphitheatre where a group of slam poets
are huddled up listening to one another
perform their forms at the end of the
night a man walks up on stage he doesn’t
perform a poem he tells the crowd that
he’s been working with kids in some of
the most dangerous neighborhoods in
Brazil and he tells them never stop
never stop performing because we are the
bridges that can cross any River this is
what I see when I see slam poetry
why do you picture when you picture
poetry in the u.s. go back to 1984 or
2000 or as recent
2016 picture said of young black boys or
queer poets or trans people or prison
inmates telling their story just as it
is no sugarcoating nothing when Saul
Williams one of the most respected poets
across the world talks about slam poetry
he does not talk about the competition
or the prize he talks about a home for
young black boys to find their voice to
express themselves to find meaning in
life at this time when you hear stories
every week of black men being shot on
the streets that’s when you realize the
importance for them to find a place to
find whom at this time in India when you
hear stories every week of women being
raped or molested when you hear stories
of men being beaten up or queer poets
queer people fighting for their rights
that’s when you realize the importance
of slam poetry of people finding a place
for themselves finding whom so we are
done with our talk but it would be a
shame if we left the stage without
performing a poetry the here it is
louder than silence louder than songs
louder than anger louder than tear drops
out of the nightmares louder than feel
louder than failure louder than fire out
of them between chimes of despair louder
than the smooth hard off regret louder
than the alarm clock of surprise louder
than the high-pitched howl of death
louder than a red mark on a tenth
standard report card louder than the
escaping sobs from a teenager’s broken
heart louder than the cries of a mother
she tries to close with stab wounds on
her daughter’s bleeding dressed louder
than the explosion of brick and mortar
track bones torn eyelid split flesh
there are times there are always times
clenched fists and closed eyes of broken
watches and
there are times of fleas on the floor of
begging for forgiveness having nowhere
to cool off wishing someone would give
you a chance to do it all again
there are times black skies and 4 times
when the snakes twist themselves around
your body and squeeze the air out like
toothpaste when you look in the mirror
and the mirror tells you it’s not worth
it and the mirror tells you you’re not
worth it and the mirror tells you to
slow down just stay down to give up
so give oh so good dust down cool oh
nine oh nine
Oh Oh Jean oh gee oh gee Oh breathe
breathe breathe breathe
is that all time the universe tells you
it’s wiser to stay down to keep your bad
stuff to the try and it’s at these times
you must look that you must shake off
its a deist time that you must punch the
universe in its god damn God wrestle the
dead stars in black sky because you are
here and you remain now that unbe
apocalypse louder than a thunderstorm
louder than the bang bang bang of ten
thousand member firing school louder
than the house your heart heard when the
clock tick down to zero
dad the scars on your knuckles from your
punches on the walls from the voices in
your head telling you you’re not good
enough then the scratches on crash cars
in which you’ve hidden all your love
then the falling Twin Towers and the
everyday air strikes the broken windows
and burning trails then the clashing
cries for help under 100 feet waves and
the soundtrack of Aleppo’s thousand a
death then splitting crossroads and the
crumbling bridges and the cracking
buildings new
then the last gasp of a child his eyes
are brown
who takes one last cup of seawater oh he
gives up his long stairs eyes closed and
his heart drowns louder than the angle
louder than the be louder than the pity
louder than the hate nodded under Sandra
then the sound of falling rocks than the
railing ruined closets
then the ticking of the clock because
there are times when the world turns to
and the sky goes dark and the
snakes beats the Angels but remember
always remember to let the light inside
your mind speak louder than the worms
inside your brain because you are here
you are here and you me thank you
you
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