Poet-Linc: Poetry Slam

by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (Contributor)

Poet-Linc is a unique documentation of a slam poetry contest created to celebrate an untapped pool of talented young artists from New York composing their original poetry to the central theme “I have a voice.” Collated as part of a ground-breaking series in partnership with The Lincoln Center and non-profits from each of the city’s five boroughs, the season’s initiative centred around the rationale of assisted teaching of participants via professional guidance, in the effort that each of these new “slam poets” would find their own voice.

A series of battles then became the focus for each competition night over an intensive six week period. Divided into three thematically diverse rounds, Declarative Poem, Narrative Poem and Free Verse/Free Style, the competition was fierce between the separate community organizations involved, each competing for just two spots in the Grand Slam Final. With the partnership non-profits including important, progressive organizations such as Curtis High School, El Puente, Girls Write Now, Global Writes, SAYA! (South Asian Youth Actions), and Urban Word, the intense and exhilarating series was one of great social and cultural recognition.

Poet-Linc contains 100 plus poems from those luminous stars of the series alongside work from established world names such as Darian Dauchan, Erik Maldonado, and Shanelle Gabriel, as well as critical essays on the medium and the season. The poems themselves portray a varied and illuminating survey into the attuned teenage mind, exploring and often inverting themes of race, love, lust, family and class in the playful, sardonic and relentless ebb and flow of the Poetry Slam itself.

Genres: Poetry, Young Adult

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 2013

About the author

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a 16.3-acre (6.6 ha) complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Built as part of the "Lincoln Square Renewal Project" during Robert Moses's program of 1960s urban renewal, the center's three main buildings, the Metropolitan Opera House, Avery Fisher Hall (formerly Philharmonic Hall) and the Koch Theatre (formerly the New York State Theater), were the first gathering of major cultural institutions into a centralized location in an American city.

Reviews

[Jamila]

Listen, do you hear that, is that the voice of the 2014 NYC teenager?
Poet – Linc: Poetry Slam is a compilation of poems that feature the writings of teens from NYC’s five boroughs. The poetry slam held at Lincoln Center used the theme I Have a Voice. Which is a very powerful statement, considering that teenagers often feel that they are misunderstood, misrepresented and unheard. This collection is a great way to expose teenagers to poetry and simultaneously validate their journey through adolescence.

[Raine]

There were a lot of painful poems in this one. The depth of the teenagers who wrote this is amazing.

[Resi]

I enjoyed this! it was good to read some spoken word by youth (as opposed to adults, which are the two other spoken word books I have), and there are some new favorite pieces in here! a good insight into youth culture, I think.

[Kim Heimbuch]

Review is written and will be posted here after it's posted at its origin