The Birth of Slam, A Global Free Speech Movement

The first online event of the Underground Slam Academy will focus on how slam poetry, a global free speech movement, started in the United States. Note, that the first years of slam just overlap with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and most revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe. Marc Smith, who invented slam in Chicago, Bob Holman, who helped popularize it, and New York based slammers, Ama Birch and Jive Poetic, along with Nancy Mercado will respond to questions from Peter Molnar, slam champion of Europe, 2018. All of them will perform a slam, or read some poems. 

You can re-watch the event here.

Cover: Daniel Gantner