By Kevin Rogers
Managing Editor
Café La Verna transformed from its normal campus coffee stop into a performance space last Thursday night as St. Bonaventure’s Slam Poetry Club hosted its second open-mic night of the semester. More than 40 students packed the café to hear student poets spin tales about childhood, love, friendship, life and death through the art of slam, a style of poetry that relies on performance, intonation and audience reaction to convey its message.
“Traditional poetry is meant to be read. Slam poetry is poetry that is meant to be performed,” club president Kevin Cooley said. “It’s performed by the performer and experienced by the audience. Without an audience, there isn’t necessarily a slam poem because of the necessary nature of that dynamic.”
That’s why the club moved its open-mic nights to Café La Verna, according to Cooley. In past years, the club hosted open-mic nights in the Rathskeller, but that format failed to facilitate the active public participation required for slam. In contrast, the new open-mic format has allowed the club to get the exposure and audience necessary for effective slam.
“The idea was that La Verna, being a point of transit, would attract a larger crowd,” Cooley said. “We could gather a more public presence by moving it out of the dungeons (of the Skeller). It really helps when we have frequent and largely-attended performances because it builds a chance for that interplay between the audience and the performer. It really encourages new slam poets to commit to being a slam poet.”
One of those new slam poets was senior Devan Phaguda, who was long interested in spoken verse and wrote over the summer, but had never performed in front of a large audience.
“This was the first time I ever stood up there and performed,” Phaguda said. “I kind of kept my head down when I was reading, so I didn’t pay too much attention to the crowd, but it was nice to have that many people there and have a positive response.”
Phaguda’s poem focused on staying in the present instead of dwelling too heavily on the past or looking too eagerly to the future.
“It was a ‘carpe diem’ kind of theme,” Phaguda said. “The idea of it is time is something we need to appreciate. Sometimes we can be hypnotized by the possibilities. I spend so much time thinking about the past and future; I forget to focus on the here and now a lot.”
Thursday’s open-mic night also featured poetry from graduate student Brett Keegan, senior Makeda Loney, juniors Sarah Baker and Emily Steves, sophomores Andrew Bevevino, Denelle Davis and Emily Manchester and freshman Dan Leopold. The evening closed with a keyboard performance of Coldplay’s “The Scientist” by freshman Adam Ditcher. Each performer was met with well-deserved snaps, claps and cheers of approval.
Cooley added ARAMARK, the university’s dining service, has been accommodating and enthusiastic in offering the café as a place to perform. The open-mic nights are usually held on the third Thursday of each month, he said.
Phaguda urged students to continue coming out to support the club and its poets.
“I would definitely recommend people come to these open-mic nights,” Phaguda said. “Even if they don’t feel comfortable reading, I think it’s important to support the arts at Bonaventure.”
In addition to the open-mic nights, the club holds open meetings each Sunday to offer experienced and up-and-coming poets a chance to discuss slam and write freely. Cooley said the meetings give newcomers a chance to develop their own voices as artists.
“The first thing I always tell slam poets is ‘There is no one way to do this,’” Cooley said. “You bring your life materials to slam poetry, and you slam the way that you see fit.”
Cooley said the format of the meetings is key to driving his message home. Each meeting begins with the club watching a professional slam poet perform and discussing the performance. The club moves on to a period of free writing, and then members have the chance to share what they produced.
“That helps new attendees understand what slam is,” Cooley said. “They can see this plethora of styles and with that realize they can develop their own unique styles.”
For example, at the club’s last meeting, the poets listened to Mike McGee’s poem “Open Letter to Neil Armstrong.” Drawing on McGee’s poetic note to America’s most iconic astronaut, members wrote and read poems that followed a similar, letter-style format. And, as always, the impromptu performances were met with snaps of encouragement and approval.
Beyond open-mic nights and meetings, the club will hold its biennial poetry slam competition later in the semester and plans to bring a professional slam poet to campus next semester, Cooley said. The club will also launch a “Poetry Pals” workshop with Bona Buddies in the coming weeks to teach children about writing and performing poetry.
The club has also beefed up its online presence to increase exposure. Cooley said the club’s Facebook has been “re-amped” to feature both poetry and advertisements for club events. In addition, the club is working on expanding its YouTube channel to feature videos of performances.
“We’ve also filmed a video promo that should be released at some point with the officers of Slam Poetry performing a collaborative poem,” Cooley said. “So that’s something to look forward to for slam enthusiasts.”
Cooley hopes the outreach effort his club has been putting forth this semester will continue to pay off with enthusiastic audiences hungry for more poetry.
“One of the big themes of Slam Poetry this year is making it a public organization, so we’re not just performing for ourselves,” Cooley said. “We want to reach out to people. We want them to experience what slam is and be able to define it for themselves.”
