Elena Prendjova. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION IN POETRY SLAM PERFORMANCE ACTS AND SHOWS

UDC: 821.163.3-1:316.7-052   

Author: Elena Prendjova

Title: AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION IN POETRY SLAM PERFORMANCE ACTS AND SHOWS

Language of Paper: English 

Language of Summary: Macedonian

Keywords: poetry slam national finals, poetry slam audience, Marc Kelly Smith, Poezin Belgrade, Poetarium Novi Sad

Pages: 69-80

According to many relevant definitions, slam poetry is more of a per­for­man­ce rather than poetry alone. Since every performative act implies the presence of both the performer and the audience, poetry slam events are no exception. The Slam Papi, Marc Kelly Smith, in his book Stage A Poetry Slam (2009) writes the main principles of slam poetry, the key one being—„The poet on the stage is no more important than the listening audience“ (Smith, 2009: 20)—thus making the au­dience equal of importance with the poet. Naturally, this is the case because of the active participatory role the poetry slam audience takes during the poetry slam per­for­mance act. However, not many academic and non-academic texts on slam poetry co­ncern the audience as their subject matter. This paper does exactly that – con­templates the role of the audience in the poetry slam performative act and attempts to answer the question of where the borderline of importance between the performer poet and the audience is, if existent.