We be re-slammin’ Competitive poetry pops up once again BY KATIE BELL
	SECOND TUESDAY SLAM Acoustic Coffee, in Portland | Tuesday, Sept 13 | 207.774.0404

Acoustic Coffee’s door was propped open and screams and distorted voices floated out into Danforth Street. At dusk on a summery Tuesday night, a crowd gathered around the makeshift stage, illuminated by a few lights warming a lonely stool and mic. Huddling in small groups, they were clapping, cheering and chitchatting, as the tea lights that dotted the dark tables flickered.

Second Tuesday Slams are back yet again.

Though Acoustic Coffee hosted round one of the New England Slam League on May 10, that Second Tuesday Slam on July 12 was Portland’s first open poetry slam in over two years. It’s a Portland spoken-word tradition that was temporarily lost with the close of the Skinny in February 2003.

Poetry slams in Portland started in 1994 at the now-defunct Granny Killam’s (for a timeline, search "poetry slam" at www.portlandphoenix.com), and then bounced around to other locations, including the Free Street Taverna and the Skinny. Nathan Amadon, who MCed the slam at Acoustic, had been trying to bring back the Second Tuesday Slam tradition for two years, holding it at the Alehouse for six months without much success.

Peddlar Bridges had started a spoken-word night at Acoustic Coffee in spring 2004 and asked Amadon to join him. While there, Amadon put out the idea of bringing back the Second Tuesday slams to Portland on a regular basis to the Acoustic crowd, as well as local poets. He also brought the 2004 Boston Slam Team to the Acoustic, which was an opportunity to advertise slam poetry, as well as be "the first real introduction to slam for people that go to the Acoustic," Amadon says.

Following their weekly Spoken Word Night, the July 12 Slam brought in a young crowd of about 30 people, made up primarily of slammers’ friends and significant others.

"This particular slam had a fairly decent crowd," said Matthew King, who goes by the nickname MC Squared, one of the four featured participants. A North Carolina native who spits hip-hop rhymes about injustice in American government, MC Squared won over the crowd and the judges, taking home first place and the crowd’s donations.

The other three slammers were Marion, a soft-spoken, eloquent lyricist; Pete, an aggressive orator, who cheered and playfully harassed his fellow slammers; and Luke, a passionate speaker whose poems critiqued the problems in the world, but tried to spin the future in a positive light.

Highs and lows of their personal experiences were reflected in the slammers’ poems. "Just listen to my eyes, my heart thumping your name," Pete intoned. "I never listened until I heard her footsteps out the door." The slammers also commented on poverty, racism, and war. MC Squared noted that, "All that glitters is not black gold." Luke followed with his critique on how the government, "Speaks in tongues, more than an evangelist on Ritalin . . . they’re so full of hot air, they could sail the Atlantic twice."

As slams embrace the creativity and different interpretations of poetry, so do the scores given out by the five judges, who on this night volunteered from the crowd. The highest and lowest scores are dropped, and judges’ scores ranged from the more traditional fives and sixes to the more mathematically complex pi, mathematical radicals, and a "big old fat 10!"

The four slammers aren’t just involved in Second Tuesday slams; along with the slam’s MC, Amadon, they also make up the Portland team in the New England Slam League.

The NESL just finished its second season, and consists of four teams. Though the post-season is over, Team Boston Lizard Lounge, Team Worcester, and the Boston/Cantab Slam team all traveled to the Nationals in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Lizard Lounge made their way into the national semi-finals, being a part of the top 20 teams out of the 74 competing.

This is the first year that poets from Portland were asked to compete in the NESL and invited to form a team. It was an invitation that Nate accepted before he had poets to make a team. As Portland slam poets put Maine on the spoken-word map once again, the reborn following and fostering of slam and the community continues with each event.

"It seems like the slam and open mic events at Acoustic will just continue to gather more people. A year ago there was always open seats and now the place was practically packed," says MC Squared.

Amadon agreed, and said he will continue the slams at the Acoustic until there is no more interest: "Slam brings people into reading that wouldn’t normally get to see what it’s all about, to keep them coming back and eventually get them up there performing."

Get your chance to be a part of the next slam, either on the stage or in the audience, before slams once again disappear into Portland’s ether.

Katie Bell can be reached at kab9484@msn.com