Tribute to Slam Poetry

Conversations with
Marc Kelly Smith & Patricia Smith

Releasing June 2007, issue #27 features a tribute to the most vibrant scene in contemporary poetry. Beginning in the Green Mill Lounge in 1986, the audience-scored performance poetry phenomenon has spread around the world, drawing crowds of thousands. Yet no major literary magazine had ever done the genre justice. Rattle remedies that problem by including a free, full-length audio CD of performances by 19 of the best poets, including 11 National Slam Champions. This popular issue is by far our widest selling and remains a reader-favorite.

Especially for the issue, Alan Fox interviews the founder of Slam Poetry, Marc Kelly Smith, and 4-time National Slam Champion and National Book Award Finalist Patricia Smith.

	Slam Poets
	Susan B.A. Somers-Willett	Introduction: Can Slam Poetry Matter?
	Roger Bonair-Agard	Mandate
	Grace Bruenderman	Piraha
	Marlon O. Carey	Every Element Is Relevant
	Kevin Coval	The Day Jam Master Jay Died
	Katie F-S	Two Bits
	Regie Gibson	Eulogy of Jimi Christ
	Carlos Andrés Gómez	“What’s Genocide?”
	Alvin Lau	To My Hair
	Taylor Mali	What Teachers Make
	Jack McCarthy	The Whole Chalupa
	Karyna McGlynn	My 3rd 9AM Appointment…
	Anis Mojgani	The Branches Are Full and These Orchards Heavy
		Cradle
	Jeremy Richards	T.S. Eliot’s Lost Hip Hop Poem
	Thadra Sheridan	After the Bowling Stopped
	Marc Kelly Smith	I Wanted to Be
		My Father’s Coat
	Patricia Smith	Building Nicole’s Mama
	Buddy Wakefield	Convenience Stores
	Poetry
	Sally Albiso	Castrati
	John Amen	Triptych
	Shannon Amidon	Midnight
	Caleb Barber	I Went in With My Hands Up
	Michelle Bitting	The Sacrifice
	Laurie Blauner	Peculiar Crimes
	Katherine Bode-Lang	Spring Melt
	Trina Burke	The Service
	Antonia Clark	Famous Last Words
	Barbara Crooker	Question Mark and the Mysterious
	Nika Cruz	Under the Shadows
	Todd Davis	Indian Summer
		Black Water
	Kristen Dewald	Lively Lips
	Marco A. Domínguez	The Edge
	Derek Economy	Accidental Potatoes
	György Faludy	Aurora Borealis
	Chris Featherman	The Fisherman
	Brent Fisk	Present
	Charlene Fix	Africa Party
	Alan Fox	A Stewardess Smile
	Cassandra Glickman	Insecticide
	Christopher Goodrich	Telling the Truth to Daughters
	Sam Hamill	Cairo Qasidah
	Peter Harris	Will Buddhism Survive?
	Elizabeth Hoover	Attempt
	Luisa A. Igloria	Circle of Cranes
	D.R. James	The Day I Got My Timing Down
	Mark Evan Johnston	Motel Night Attendant
	David Kelly-Hedrick	In the Bleachers
	Krista Klanderman	Hello, I Must Be Going
	John Laue	Dawn on Maui
	Gary Lemons	End Game
	Joanne Lowery	Hot Night Too Loud for Words
		Escapees From the Zoo
	David T. Manning	At the Spring
	Joy Maulitz	In the Gynecologist’s Waiting Room
	Amy Miller	Rhode Island
	Michael Miller	Corporal Russell
	Gabrielle Mittelbach	The Beginning of a Long Night
	Greg Moglia	A Man Is Not Supposed to Give in to Tears
	Natasha K. Moni	It Is Fair to Say There Are Some Lovers…
	Hannah Faith Notess	To the Former Self in Art Class
	Jennifer Perrine	Home Visit: Danny
	Anne Pitkin	Still Life
	Tim Poland	These Wild Turkeys
	Doug Ramspeck	Bottomlands Widow
	Susan Rich	Daphne Swears Off It
	Liz Robbins	Three Rivers Meet, Become Falls
	Jason Schossler	Baby Steps
	Wanda Schubmehl	Schroedinger’s Cat
	Prartho Sereno	Love of Distance
	Michael Shorb	Kindness of Strangers
	Lisa L. Siedlarz	Cnidaria
	J. Arron Small	The Day It Rained a Whale
	Patricia Smith	Always Hungry
	A.C. Speyer	Picnic
	Mark Terrill	A Poem for Uncertainties
	Nancy J. Thompson	Memories of My Jewish Aunt
	Rachel Webster	How Did We Come to Be the Ones…
	Douglas Woody Woodsum	First Pig
	Bonnie Young	Broke
	Maya Jewell Zeller	Why We Can’t Use Roundup on Our Lawn
	Conversations
	Marc Kelly Smith
	Patricia Smith