Their words against ours

At the Cantab, teams from Emerson and Hampshire face off in preparation for the national collegiate poetry slam

CAMBRIDGE - Max Kessler stands in front of a packed crowd that cheers rambunctiously as he "slams" about his contempt for indie rock: "I am the only heavy metal fan at Emerson College, and I think that not only speaks poorly of Emerson's student body but of the artistic integrity of my entire generation." His voice booms with pride for heavy metal music as he extends an invitation to the audience: "Come thrash with me!"

Sean Conlon's face turns an unnatural shade of red as he gesticulates furiously, pleading with Middle America to wake up and rid itself of bigotry and hatred. His words are filled with desperation as he begs Midwesterners in particular to be open-minded: "Without love," he says, "even grass dries up."

Carrie Rudzinski's ethereal voice flows through heartbreaking metaphors of rejection and loss. She speaks with the smooth, sensual rhythm of a jazz singer: "Indigo sky knuckle-down nosebleed . . . I resorted to creating new memories with you by looking at old photographs and pretending I had been in them."

Their styles and inspiration vary widely, but these college students spend every Wednesday at the Cantab Lounge's slam poetry night for the same reason: to hone their skills in preparation for the big leagues of collegiate slam poetry, the Association of College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational. Twenty-six teams will travel to Albuquerque this week for the four-day competition hosted by the University of New Mexico. Three are from New England schools: Emerson College, Hampshire College, and Dartmouth College.

Slam poetry - competitive spoken-word performance - is thriving in Boston, due largely to the efforts of Simone Beaubien, who runs the Cantab's slam poetry night. Twenty-five years ago, poets interested in performance art started informal slams in Chicago and New York. They evolved into competitive slams, where hosts chose members of the audience to act as judges, and each poet was given a numeric score for a performance.

The Gringo Choir at Emerson College and the Hampshire College Slam Collective team, which have been squaring off at the Cantab, were both formed within the past few months, mostly for the purpose of attending the national competition. The teams competed in February at a Boston University fund-raiser. Hampshire won the competition, establishing a friendly rivalry between the teams.

The Gringo Choir was formed when mutual friends of the four members encouraged them to compete in the ACUI regional slam poetry competition, held in February at Boston University. The team won the competition and was rewarded with a prepaid registration fee for the invitational, marking Emerson's first year at the national competition.

The Emerson teammates - Kessler, Rudzinski, Carlos Williams, and Steve Subrizi - said they were surprised that they have bonded as a team so quickly. "We represent four voices that I never would have put together, but we all come together really well," Rudzinski said. Each has an individual style, ranging from humorous and anecdotal to serious and dense in metaphors.

"These are four poets who have been coming to the Cantab for over a year and who each have pretty distinct voices," said Beaubien, who has been coaching the Gringo Choir. "They have a lot of different things to say." She said the team also has a knack for writing poetry together quickly. "Their ability to band together and put together multi-voice pieces is incredibly impressive," she said.

The Gringo Choir has prepared two group poems in addition to its members' individual poems, each with a primary author. Kessler's piece, "Beast," is about people holding back from doing what they want with their lives out of fear or inhibition. The poets repeat this theatrical line with intensity: "There is a beast that lives within me." "The Night of the Crazies," written by Williams, has a dark, serious tone, heavy with imagery about changing as people on the so-called "night of the crazies."

In collegiate and national slam competitions, there can be a temptation to write political or liberal poetry. Judges and audience members are often interested in hearing about gay rights, the injustices of war, and other politically loaded topics.

Williams said his team will keep politics to a minimum, mostly because they don't want to point out the obvious. "It's more poignant that we write from our experiences and not about them," he said. "Is there a political message? Yeah, but you need to look for it."

Conlon, the organizing member of the Hampshire College team, said he feels similarly. "Politics at college nationals is particularly popular. . . . Expressive art is often directly tied with liberalism," Conlon said. "But we like to bring poetry that we love. Everyone on our team writes poetry about what moves them."

The Hampshire team was formed through an open competition held by Conlon at the Hampshire Slam Collective, an on-campus club that hosts a weekly slam poetry night. Conlon - who is the club's leader, or slam master - created a nationally certified slam poetry venue at Hampshire.

In addition to attending the invitational in Albuquerque, the team will be the first collegiate team ever to compete at the National Poetry Slam in Madison, Wis., in August. "I wanted to know what I could do that was different, to leave a mark and push the limits of the local scene," Conlon said.

Conlon and his teammates - Esmé Vaandrager, Charley Pope, and Andy Locke - are still working on some new group pieces, including a few duets. "We're bringing new pieces to the table and just sharing our writing with one another," Vaandrager said. "We're all interested in producing new work."

The members of the Gringo Choir, for their part, are enthusiastic about competing in New Mexico alongside a team they're familiar with. "I'm glad that [the Hampshire team] is here to help us and be our friends," Kessler said. "I hope that we have been giving them the same support in return."

Subrizi admitted to being a little intimidated by Hampshire. "They know what they are doing, and they have a pretty clear sense of who they are as poets," he said. "I just hope that we can do nearly as well as they should do."

Pope said his team lacks the camaraderie of the Gringo Choir. He attributes this mostly to his own team's lack of time to practice and workshop together. "We are much more a group of poets going to Albuquerque together, and they are more like a tight family," he said. "We don't have nearly as developed a sense of team."

Emerson may have the solidarity and Hampshire the experience, but each team is determined to represent its school. "We are going off to battle for our little college," Williams said.

To Robb Thibault, founder and former coordinator of the invitational, it is no surprise that the Cantab has bred a friendly slam between two local colleges. He said he was inspired to get involved in slam poetry when he stumbled upon the Cantab more than 10 years ago. The venue has been hosting the popular slam poetry night for almost two decades, bringing together amateur and professional slam poets from around New England.

"I consider Cantab to be one of the meccas of slam poetry," Thibault said. "Wednesday nights at Cantab replaced my Sunday Mass. . . . I was blown away. I thought, 'This belongs on college campuses.' "