College Times

Walk to Mill Avenue's end on Friday nights and, above drunken shouts, kitchen clatter and booming bass, you can hear the hustle and bustle of the latest college craze: performance poetry.

Late last year, Valley poet and repeat Blaze Radio guest Terran "Manifest Destiny" Randolph launched a weekly poetry slam on Friday evenings at Mill's End Cafe and Creperie in Tempe.

From humble beginnings, this slam, primarily frequented by college students, quickly matured into a prominent Mill Avenue scene and is now one of the best-attended performance poetry events in Arizona. Mill's End hosts such guest artists as nationally renowned poets Derek Brown and Buddy Wakefield.

"[Performing poetry] is kind of like an orgasm, a natural high or meditation," Randolph said. "Mill's End is a wild and uplifting experience. Thanks to the people of the Avenue, we have musicians, live painting and, best of all, the hottest slam in the Valley."

Another slam, the oldest in the Southwest, held on Thursday evenings at Essenza Coffee House in Mesa, is still going strong.

Kevin "Chesko" Briancesco, an Arizona State University communications graduate student and performance poet, considers Essenza his home venue. He is amazed by "how much the scene has expanded" since he moved to Arizona just last year.

"Poetry slams were created in order to give marginalized voices a space to be heard," the 25-year-old said. "They are countercultural stages wherein literally anybody can come to a slam, throw a buck in the hat, sign up and be heard."

Performance poetry, he said, is a fusion of standup comedy, old-fashioned campfire storytelling, activism and much, much more.

"People really underestimate the power of the spoken word," he said. "I am a firm believer that our world is not going to change by some grandiose act of heroism. It will change one room full of people at a time."

Poetry, Briancesco said, is meant to be performed.

"I perform to bring my words to life," he said. "Poetry was never meant to stay on the page. On a personal level, performance is cathartic. It's become a drug for me."

Monthly spoken word competitions, held on last Wednesdays at The Paper Heart and Zoë's Kitchen in Phoenix, have experienced rapidly increasing audience turnout. Other performance poetry events, emerging with growing regularity, are held intermittently at various locations.

Kelsey Miller, an ASU political science major, performs regularly at such local slams.

Next month, Miller intends to compete at the 7th Annual Slab City Slam Arizona Spoken Word Festival, a free, three-day performance poetry event to be held in Arcosanti. Eight teams from across Arizona will contest the title of 2007 state champion in three rounds of uncensored, audience-judged spoken word performance.

Those that plan to attend, veterans and amateurs alike, are encouraged to camp out and share their poetry throughout the weekend during bonfires and various other events.

"Poetry on the page is well and good [but] I like my poetry to steal the air from my lungs," the 20-year-old said. "Slam is breathing life into poetry. You can feel the audience and they can feel you, and when that connection is made it's just an unbeatable feeling."

Article Tools