How Falling in Love is like Owning a Dog

The American poetry slam movement is rooted in the ancient and intimate tradition of oral storytelling. For thousands of years, storytelling has been a principal tool in passing on cultural knowledge and beliefs from one generation to the next. Stories in this tradition instruct, but they also entertain, ensuring the continuation of this practice throughout history due to its fluidity.

Contemporary oral traditions, such as spoken word performances, combine the rebellious, jazz-inspired pacing of the Beat generation with a more confessional style modeled after other poets writing in the 1950s and 1960s. Author and researcher Susan B. A. Somers-Willett discusses the tenets of modern storytelling in her critical essay, “Slam Poetry: Ambivalence, Gender, and Black Authenticity in ‘Slam,’” highlighting the influences, evolution, and the places that oral storytelling and modern slams hold in contemporary times.

Poetry slams are “competitive versions of local poetry readings [that] emerged in the late 20th century as a literary-performative genre of protest and celebration” (Somers-Willett, Susan B. A. “Slam Poetry: Ambivalence, Gender, and Black Authenticity in Slam.” Text, Practice, Performance Journal of Cultural Studies, 3.1: 37–63, 2001). Similar to ancient Greek poetry competitions, slam poets “perform their own work in three-minute time slots, which is in turn judged Olympic-style from zero to ten by randomly-chosen members of the audience […] After several rounds of elimination, the poet with the highest score is declared the winner and is awarded a cash prize or title” (Somers-Willett, Susan B. A. “Slam Poetry: Ambivalence, Gender, and Black Authenticity in Slam.” Text, Practice, Performance Journal of Cultural Studies, 3.1: 37–63, 2001).

Taylor Mali was actively writing and performing poetry during the genesis of the poetry slam, operationalizing his written work during performances on the stages of New York City. Mali uses slam to share his private experiences and emotions publicly, exposing how slam artists like himself are more than just competitors, but rather, are real people, entering into a vulnerable and sacred exchange with audiences. Mali’s poetic voice, tone, and literary devices are all more easily identifiable when heard aloud; for example, verbal pauses indicate poetic line breaks. Mali’s poem “How Falling in Love is like Owning a Dog” is one of his most well-known slam pieces (see: Further Reading “Listen to Poem”) because his intonation and facial expressions add more nuance to the already complex piece of writing.

Somers-Willett cites “the Black Arts Movement, jazz, early rap, and hip-hop” as essential influences to the rise of slam poetry as well as the success of white slam artists like Mali (Somers-Willett, Susan B. A. “Slam Poetry: Ambivalence, Gender, and Black Authenticity in Slam.” Text, Practice, Performance Journal of Cultural Studies, 3.1: 37–63, 2001). Therefore, the American slam poetry movement would not look the same if it were not for the Black artists and activists who challenged constraints of traditional highbrow poetry. Slam poetry endeavors to make poetry accessible to the masses, complimenting Mali’s own ethos that poetry is an art form based in connection, an art form that everyone ought to enjoy whether they are the writers, performers, or audience members taking part in the intimate exchange of storytelling.