Rain poured from the sky Friday evening, and torrents of words flashed and dazzled like lightning in Gerlinger Lounge. A packed audience listened attentively, lounging on huge pillows and banana chairs, as six students and one last-minute entrant competed in the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Poetry SLAM. The event began at 5 p.m. and lasted nearly three hours.
In addition to competition, the slam included performances by Portland’s famous Womb Dialectic and the University’s Zeta Phi Beta Inc. Poets Turiya Autry and Mic Crenshaw, who make up Womb Dialectic, have both been recognized for their work in Portland public schools. Each has represented Portland in National Poetry Slam competitions.
Visiting assistant professor of marriage and family therapy Jason Platt said he coordinated the slam with help from several University co-sponsors, as an effort to facilitate community dialogue.
“I’ve seen in therapy that poetry seems to be, for individuals, very therapeutic,” he said. “I think this helps the community express what it’s feeling.”
Platt said he contacted the student poets after he saw them participate in various slams and open mic nights. He invited Crenshaw and Autry to speak to his classes after he heard them open for the Eugene Poetry Slam competition at Foolscap Books.
“I was just blown away by them,” he said. “In some of their poems, some of the ideas I try to convey over a whole term, they summed up in three minutes.”
Platt added that poetry slams provide an avenue of communication for voices that aren’t heard in other forums.
Poet Jahan Khalighi agreed. “You need all sorts of kinds and races,” he said. “All races, all backgrounds; (the poetry slam) is open to anybody that has a story to tell.”
The senior English major said he has been writing poetry for four years, and he has participated in at least 15 slams. He added that this is the first year he has participated in a formal celebration to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Lane Community College sophomore and self-described “life” major Hunter Blackwell said he participated in the slam to reach out to others and promote positive transformation.
“Everything that I write has a very conscious message, and I really try to touch people,” he said. “It’s not just the simple exercision of my vocabulary. Words change the way people think and feel, and therefore, they can change the way people operate.”
Senior English major Martha Grover said her purpose was similar. She added that the overall subtext to her poetry is accountability.
“It’s not enough to stand up on a soapbox and point your finger at people,” she said. “You have to take responsibility for your own actions.”
Artists Hannif Panni, Erick Lackie and Terri Riggins were the slam’s other student competitors. The six judges also allowed poet Michael Franklin, who said he stumbled off a Greyhound bus from Tucson, Ariz., to enter at the last minute.
Themes ranged from homelessness to feminism to cultural controversy, and audience members complied with the emcee’s encouragement to loudly voice their opinions, on both the judge’s scoring and the poetry itself.
Riggins emerged the winner — garnering a $50 prize — with Panni in second, and Grover and Khalighi in a close tie for third. A resulting “slam-off” rendered Khalighi the official third place winner.
However, the evening’s emphasis was on its intent and lasting results rather than numbers and scoring. In fact, Lackie said he didn’t even know the event was a competition when he entered.
Perhaps Blackwell summed up the entire event in his poem.
“Words last longer than people,” he said.