When the Youth Speak
Video by Young Rebel

 

A Vocal Movement
Report Back from the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival
Story and photos by G. Melesaine

Dear President Bush,

Please be aware that the future is coming for you and others similar to your likes, and they're not using they're indoor voices either. If you were getting worried about our future with all the negative crap the media puts out on our youth, well have no fear, because the positivism has arrived and it consists of some of the most articulate use of language from the youngest tongue used for movement and against profane ideals.

Youth Speaks, along with San Jose's MACLA, put together the 10th Annual Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival which lasted 5 days with poets aging from 13-19 from the United Kingdom to Twin Cities and everywhere in between. For five days of its duration, I would experience the confirmation of a "better tomorrow."

 

The opening ceremony was held in front of the San Jose Museum of Art. I arrived late only to find John Carlos on the microphone, one of the Olympic athletes who participated in the silent protest of raising his fist while on the victory platform during the 1968 Olympics. Hundreds of youth were taken heavily by this man's presence, and they went on to introduce themselves with creative style through words, spoken word.

Spoken word is a rhetoric, you can't generalize it in one category because it's too diverse to pinpoint it as just poetry or as performance. Spoken word just is. So for the following days the competition they call "slams" took place along with a number of workshops. A slam is somewhat like an Olympics of spoken word, except poets already know that the competitiveness of the slam doesn't exist at all, its just a manipulation but with good intent -- for poets to be in a extremely large cipher, except there are judges. The judges may be generous or might be cynical when they're putting a number score on a poem, which brings me to day three.

Day three, I became one of those judges, cynical or giving 10 (the top possible score) was my number for the day and the slams went on. The grand slam, which was the ultimate, the finale, the end to all the bullshit poem scoring, was extremely powerful. It ended with all of the young poets on stage raising their fists. it was an epic moment. I know it may sound corny but do you remember MLK's I have a dream speech? Here it was in physical form, brought to you exclusively from an expression of art that traveled several years from my ancestors, tribal chiefs who spoke to the village to Jesus speaking to hordes of people, to now a young gay man on a San Jose stage. Words are historical when spoken. If you're wondering which city team won the slam, honestly I really can't remember things that don't matter. But I do know that this is a movement, a vocal movement.

The Beat of the Young

Story by Leonard Lozano

The beat of the young, It's been a long time since you have been in the presence of a creative community like this one. It was in the late fifties and early sixties that something like this happened, It is these spoken word artists with their verses that have defined the philosophy of a new literary school. With their rhythmic long verses filled with emotion connecting them with the Beatniks – term coined by a journalist describing a scene of writers, among them Kerouac, Ginsber, Burroughs and others.

 

I have heard of a poetry scene emerging among young people a while back. I've seen several on the Def Poetry Jam sessions. Hosted by Mos Def, it is these new unconventional poets that are emerging from a society that has “beat” them. It might not always appeal to people that are rigid about poetic form, but it is something new, and they are the new philosophers of poetic asthetics. Whether people like it or not, a new cause, a new philosophy.

I walk down first street on a Thursday, It is one of those days where you can see this side of town getting ready for the clubs to open, the asphalt gets dark along with the buildings, they are illuminated by streetlights and car headlights. I see the sign of the California Theater from across the street. It is the 10 th annual Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival. Outside the building I see crowds of people gathered. They are an array of characters from different cultures scattered at one of the breaks. It seems I've arrived late but in time to see some of the poets perform at the end. I had read about this young poet named Yosimar in the newspapers, and had even heard him perform. He is one of San Jose's many poets growing up in the East of San Jose. He writes of the working class family he comes from, issues on migration, globalization and the struggle of the working class internationally.

 

There are people scattered around and there is a dimness of light that makes you feel you're walking into a movie right when its about to start. I find a seat and Mr. Yosimar is sitting in the back. We greet and I find my place in a row of empty seats behind him. There are the last of the poets in the competition. I hear clapping and people snapping their fingers. The stage is an open canvas, combining song and narrative into their work, the poets are scored in content, poetry and execution. More than a competition, this event seemed to me a reunion of writers. At the end they gather on stage, like those old family photographs of distant, but memorable relatives. One of the judges takes the mic and directs to the audience his concern, “ There are people that believe that this is not poetry,” he is standing on stage with all the poets behind him. “They believe that to write poetry you have to write about the clouds and the trees, and to them I say how can you write about the trees when the police are in them.” The crowd claps and a commotion of sound begins and slowly settles down. One of the poets overtakes the stage at the end, beat boxing a very creative mix of songs among them “Oye como va” that ends the night well. I say goodbye and walk out among the crowd. It is comforting to see these young people that have such commitment to writing.

I get on the bus and head back home, still hearing those prose and the crowd that clear away as I hear the rings of the bus stop.   Brave New Voices 2007 was presented by Youth Speaks and MACLA, they had gathered 450 poets from around the country for this event. Mr. Yosimar has been filmed in a documentary about Spoken Word called “2nd Verse” that is to come out soon. It might be true that spoken word poets don't get the hype like musicians or actors but with Mr. Yosimar, you can't simply avoid once you've heard him. This town is filled with undiscovered talent and slowly this new Beat Generation is rising out of old conventions and fighting new battles, breathing life into another chapter of an old dusty book.