Uptown Poetry Slam With Marc Smith February 22, 2009

Marc Kelly Smith is best known for bringing to the world wide poetry community a new style of poetic presentation that has spawned one the most important social/literary arts movements of our time. As stated in the PBS television series, 'The United States of Poetry,' a "strand of new poetry began at Chicago's Green Mill Tavern in 1987 when Marc Smith found a home for the Poetry Slam." Since then, performance poetry has spread throughout the country and across the globe to hundreds of cities, universities, high schools, festivals, and cultural centers. Each year, teams from American and European cities compete in the National Poetry Slam, an extravagant festival blending thousands of poetic voices. Not surprisingly, the Slam has taken root internationally and includes on-going performances in Germany, UK, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Czech Republic, and Singapore.