Young Rhymin' Amateurs Rediscover Pentameter

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Dec 27, 1999 | by Rebecca Wyatt

Rhyming is not just fop rappers anymore. Teen-agers are reading and writing poetry, even performing their work in coffee shops, to the cheeps or boos of fellow versifiers.

Writing, reading and sharing poetry -- whether in coffeehouses, bookstores or on the Internet -- has become the "in" thing among the generation Y set. Poetry "slams" -- gatherings of amateurs who read their prose before an audience and randomly selected judges -- are well-attended events. Poetry sites and contests are popping up on the World Wide Web, where teens can publish their own work. Even pop-star Jewel has published her own volume of rhymes called A Night Without Armor. "Poetry is the most honest and intimate art form that I have found," she writes in the preface. "It is raw and unfiltered."

Matthew Rohrer, coordinator of the Poetry in Motion program that reprints stanzas in ad spaces on buses and subways, has declared poetry a late-nineties trend. "It has suddenly hit, when a few years ago it was incredibly dorky" he says. In fact, poetry slams are remarkably popular. What started 13 years ago as a reaction to academic readings has grown into popular, rowdy competitions among rhymers.

"On any given Monday night, there are college kids, businesspeople in suits," says Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, former membership director of the Academy of American Poets in New York, which organizes slams, including the annual National Poetry Slam. "Everyday people have a right to say what they do like or don't like about poetry," he explains, noting that audience members feel free to cheer or boo a performer. "It's a very grass-roots thing. Basically, anything goes."

Slams are especially popular among young people because they crave outlets for self-expression, says Cathi Dunn MacRae, editor of Voice of Youth Advocates magazine, known as VOYA. "Teens are spending more and more time alone," notes MacRae, and poetry readings give them an opportunity to get rare feedback from adults. VOYA sponsors an annual contest for teachers and librarians to submit students' poetry for cash prizes and the opportunity to be published in VOYA's magazine.

Roger Lathbury, English and poetry professor at George Mason University, says that while poetry has increased in popularity because it is "sensitive" and tends to hook people, he attributes its current success mainly to its brevity and presence on the Internet. "The poem is right there in front of you" he says. "It's very adaptable to two or three screens." Poetry. corn, for example, offers $100 to winners of a daily contest in which people drag words from a box to create a poem online.

Damian Rogers, assistant editor for the Chicago-based Poetry magazine, says poetry has become more popular in colleges and writing workshops. "People definitely seem to be really hungry for that kind of outlet" she says. Likewise, Mary Ann Brownlow, community-relations coordinator for Borders Books & Music in Washington, has noticed the increase in poetry sales during the last few years. "We depend on writers, especially on writers of poetry and fiction, to tell the story of the people and community," she explains. "They can do it much better than historians, scientists or sociologists."

The store has gotten in on the poetry scene with its May "Bring In Da Slam" for teen-agers that drew a crowd of about 300. At the last one, the teens collectively beat a group of professional adult poets in a contest to see who could outperform the other.