The Poetry Slam in Chicago, 2008, a rousing competition documented by the Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel team, has an abundance of energy and love that almost overcomes the astonishing virtuosity of the individual participants.
Although the film has a now common narrative pattern of following a few teams and stars months before the competition, the tension is still there as eliminations breed sorrow and success tests nerves. Steinmetz city school won in an upset in 2007, so can it win again in 2008? You just don't know until the last minutes of the doc, a formula for action but just as compelling as being at the competition that last night.
The solo artists are more powerful for me than the team. Some of their poetry, such as that of Nova Venerable from Oak Park/River Forest High School, is plain arresting, hers about her father and disabled brother as authentic and emotionally electric as the best writing you could read on the subjects. (Nova, like her name, is from another world). Adam Gottlieb, from Northside College Prep, is the most personable with words about his Jewish heritage that must make his race proud to be on his lips.
These slammers are not rappers, who rely on a repertoire far beyond the simple voices of the slammers, but their messages are so authentic and unadorned you might book a flight to the windy city for the next poetry slam. Of course, that wind would be the dynamic breath of these teens, who are disadvantaged no more—just watch the postscript for the colleges they are attending.
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