Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems began as part of an oral tradition, from folk songs to focusing on uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song, and comedy. History goes back to later attempts on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme. The mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more regarded as a fundamental, creative way of expressing language. While studying literature, you will notice that poems comes in many, many different forms. One that seems to be trending lately is a type of genre called "poetry slam. " Poetry slam is "a competition at which poets read or recite original work. These performances are then judges on a numeric scale by previously selected members of the audience. ".
In 1985, a construction worker and poet named Marc Smith started a poetry reading series at a Chicago jazz club, the "Get Me High Lounge, " trying to discover a way to breathe life into the open mic, in a poetry format. In 1986, Smith approached the owner of "Green Mill, " with a plan to host a weekly poetry cabaret on the club's slow Sunday nights. Jemilo (owner of the Jazz club) welcomed him, and on July 25, the Uptown Poetry Slam was born. Smith drew on baseball and bridge terminology for the name, and instituted the show's basic structure of an open mic, guest performers, and a competition. The Green Mill evolved into the Mecca for performance poets, and the Uptown Poetry Slam still continues 18 years after its inception. .
A typical "poetry slam, " people out of the crowd are randomly chosen to act as judges for the event. Depending on what type of slam you are attending the max judges are five and the minimum is three. Before every competition starts, the host brings up a "sacrificial " poet, which the judges will score in order to calibrate their judging. After every poet finishes, each of the judges declares a score for that particular poem.