Street talk bridges cultural divide

By Mark Coyle
BBC Scotland news website

Don't we all love this stage? This microphone, this spotlight...
Doing our thing, performing our poems
We may be nervous as hell, but here we all stand with a story to tell
So many ideas in this 13 year old middleschool mind of mine

Welcome to "slam poetry", an art form born in Chicago which has now embraced schools across the United States.

The words are expressed forcefully, reminiscent of the way heavy rap is delivered. The accompanying body motions speak of time spent on the street, of attitude and of a "listen to me, I have something to say" demand.

Mauricio Gonzales (far right) and his schoolmates

The piece of slam poetry woven through this story was written by Mauricio Gonzales, a 14-year-old Hispanic teenager from the Bronx, New York.

Mauricio and his schoolmates at Arthur Toscanini Junior High have taken part in a video conference with young people from Buckhaven and Levenmouth in Fife in a project called Digital Link which may see the emergence of Scottish versions of slam poetry.

The American teenagers stepped up in front of Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell, in New York as part of Tartan Week, and went through their repertoire, each poem prompting waves of applause from their audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

I wanna write about the intensity we create and the words we have fun with
I wanna write about these metaphors and rhymes we write sometimes, stabbing us slowly in the soul, with a pen full of ink, full of meaning
I wanna write about these similes wrapping me in a warm blanket, handing me a hot cup of coco after I shovel snow

An organisation called Dream Yard takes professional artists into about 40 schools in the Bronx and works on integrating art forms into the school curriculum.

Schools in the district take part in slam poetry competitions via video conference.

Co-founder Jason Duchin said: "It's an opportunity not only for kids to compete against one other but to share poetry, to share skills, thoughts and styles and to interact with each other in a wonderfully supportive way.

The Bronx and Levenmouth came together on a video link

"It presents opportunities to unlock the doors of their imagination and through seeing in concrete works of art the beautiful things that are possible gives people the confidence to realise those dreams, those things that they just imagine but don't talk about."

After Mauricio and the others had completed their routines, the admiration in Fife was unmistakeable.

Dacquan Brown, 15, told the Scottish teenagers that poetry was an outlet for them to express themselves through words and body expressions.

"Poetry gives each poet in here a way to speak to the world with similes and metaphors and it gives everybody a way of listening to us without us having to get into trouble.

"I speak to the world in poetic manner."

I wanna write about how 30 seconds ago my lungs were heaving, having trouble breathing and how it felt like there was a championship wrestling match going on in my belly, about how I didn't have to open my fists to know my palms were sweaty
You may not see them now, but my kneecaps are shaking up and down like one of them back massagers from the Sharper Image

Back came the reply from Scotland: "The poetry we mainly look at here is in the school curriculum. It's more historic. We don't have anything that's modern or is expressive as what we've just seen from you guys."

Then an observation from Scotland of a difference between the two cultures.

"You guys love your country way more than young people in Scotland do.

Right now I feel like we're all one big family Dacquan Brown Bronx pupil

"There's a lot more confidence in you. Young people in Scotland have a real self-confidence crisis at the moment and I think that you guys in America with slam poetry have a way of expressing your feelings and how deep they are."

Mr McConnell, a former teacher, said: "I think we all know there are issues in Scotland with the confidence of young people and we have to find new ways of helping young people become more confident and express themselves better in Scotland."

I wanna write about these other poets writing, reading, reciting, performing masterpieces we place into a master puzzle
And my God, to be both impressed and intimidated by these poets
I've heard poems about politics, love, rape, hate, death of their loved ones, and death wished upon those they hated...

Alistair Hunter, chief executive Levenmouth YMCA, had made the trip to the Bronx to help forge the embryonic long-distance link. His organisation works on helping to fulfil the aspirations of young people in central Fife.

"We're here to learn how they do what they do, why they do it, the benefits of that and we're going to take that back to Buckhaven and work out how we're going to link these young people up so they can learn from each other," he said.

The video link closed with talk of further hook-ups and of Levenmouth entering a team in a future slam poetry competition.

The two groups had bridged their geographic and cultural divides through the use of technology and shared words with common and different meanings.

Dacquan Brown's final statement to Fife summed it up: "Right now I feel like we're all one big family."

Don't we all love this stage? This microphone, this spotlight...
Doing our thing, performing our poems
We may be nervous as hell, but here we all stand with a story to tell

Mauricio Gonzales