Anderson 1
Alison Anderson
Mrs.McQuillan
Honors American Literature, 7
12 May 2017
Voices can be heard through Slam Poetry
In Smith’s early life he went through perceived struggles similar to third world countries
and minorities. Smith had to worry about living in ground zero for a nuclear attack in his
southside Chicago neighborhood similar to countries such as Japan, South Korea, and some
European countries. This worry was due to the neighborhood’s proximity to the steel mills in
Chicago. Living in the southside of Chicago Smith was a minority due to 93% of the southside
being composed of African Americans he often experienced hostile feelings. His feeling were
predicated on by actions which included harsh words being thrown at him about his race.
Marc Smith has written poetry since 19 and gave Slam Poetry its name in 1984 at the Get
Me High Club. Coming out of high school Smith worked in construction although his true
passion since 19 was writing poetry. He found it as a way to voice a story that is unique to the
reader and would always do it in a theatrical way, grabbing the attention of his audiences. This
theatrical performance Smith put on would later be called Slam Poetry in 1984 by Smith himself.
Following the start of Slam Poetry, Marc Smith continued to spread his ideals of social
justice throughout the country through his poetry. He did this by traveling the country and
performing his poems for vast audiences who will listen. His poems include “Ground Zero”,
“Detention Center”, “Old White Guy Whitey”, among others. His poems have inspired and
continue to inspire many new artists of all ages, races, and genders to write, perform, and inspire
others to do the same with their life stories.
Anderson 2
Marc Smith’s poems bring around a lot of controversy in the audiences due to the
sensitive topics. An instance of this happened on April 12th, 2017 at SUNY Oneonta’s Big
O’Poetry Slam at CUPSI (The College Union Poetry Slam Invitational) in Chicago. Teammates
Katie Herbert, Gabe Membreno, Jillian Moczara, Fia Garry, Chandler Aldrich, and Princeton
Smith after taking 67th place out of 72 openly booed Marc Smith as he read a few of his poems
including “Detention Center”. “Detention Center” details the lives of third world countries
compared to the lives of first world countries, which is seen in the beginning of his poem,
Somewhere, while we speak, while we sip our coffee Boston in the cabarets and cafes
discussing the issues of freedom and restraint, art and liberty — somewhere, in the third
world, a father, separated from family and friends, stands facing a concrete wall.
