Next summer, when spoken wordsmiths from across the county get together for the national poetry slam competition in North Carolina, an eight-man team representing Jersey City will take the stage, putting forward their best rhymes and rhythms.
Developed and nurtured through Jersey City Slam – a regular Friday night competition that helps local performance poets hone their skills – the team reportedly includes some of the strongest poets in the nation.
“People associate poetry slams and spoken word poets with New York. But really, a lot of the poets who compete in New York actually come from northern New Jersey,” said Ben Figueroa, a co-founder of Jersey City Slam. “The thing was, there was no place for them to compete in New Jersey, so they’d go over the New York.”
For the uninitiated, a poetry slam is a competition in which writers perform, rather than read or recite, their original poetry. Several spoken word poets will typically compete against one another as part of a single program and are rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Generally those who score well are those whose prose and performance are of equal merit.
‘There’s been a merging of the literary world and the world of spoken word.’ – Ben Figueroa.
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“Poetry slams reached they heyday in the early 2000s,” Figueroa noted. “That’s when you had Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam and there were all these poets like Saul Williams and Jessica Care-More who were getting national recognition. But then the scene got really stale. There was a lot of mimicking going on.”
Soon, many spoken word poets began to sound the same; all the men started to sound like Williams, all the women started to sound like Care-More. Their poems had the same cadence, their performances had the same theatrics, and the slam scene waned for several years.
The resurrection
Then, a funny thing happened on the way to obscurity.
A new breed of poets, including Figueroa and others connected to Jersey City Slam – Justin Woo, Tom “St. Pat” VanCott, Sean VanKleef, Mark Skrzypczak – became part of the new slam revival.
“If you haven’t been to a slam in many years, the first thing you’ll notice is that there’s been a merging of the literary world and the world of spoken word,” said Figueroa. “You now have much more diversity among active spoken word poets today, and everybody has a much more unique, individual style and voice.”
The Jersey City Slam crew, who perform downtown each Friday at the Grassroots Community Space at 54 Coles St., have been rewarded for forging a different spoken word path.
Last year eight poets from Jersey City Slam competed in “NorthBeast,” the annual northeast regional poetry slam competition. In November 2010, Figueroa, VanCott, VanKleef, and Skrzypczak took first place in the team competition. Figueroa came in second for the individual tournament.
Two weeks ago, Jersey City Slam sent another team to compete in the 2011 “NorthBeast.” Competing against 79 other teams, the JC team again came in second – an honor that now allows the team to compete in the national competition next August in North Carolina.
“This year’s team is amazing,” said Figueroa. “They are fantastic performers and have been working hard to prepare for the tournament. I feel great about our chances. We’re going to bring home the [win] for Jersey City and the state of New Jersey.”
Until next summer, team members will continue to perfect their skills each Friday night at the Grassroots Community Space.
Periodically the team will give audiences a preview of pieces they will present next year in North Carolina. Weekly slams begin at 9:30 p.m. after a brief open mic session. Doors open at 9. There’s a $5 admission fee, $3 for students with ID.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.