Slam poets to share work at Rachael’s Cafe tonight

Harlan Kelly thinks performing slam poetry is like laying your soul out there for everyone to see. But he isn’t afraid of vulnerability.

Kelly, a slam poet, said being open on stage helps the audience identify with the raw emotions he accesses.

“It’s a unique kind of communication,” he said. “I think that what surprises people most, is how much it ends up feeling like a conversation.”

Tonight at 9, Kelly and 10 other slam poets will compete for a small prize at Rachael’s Cafe for “Love the Mic Night.”

Slam Poetry is different than page poetry, Kelly said. It’s a form of poetry that is meant for performance.

“A lot of poetry on the page is less inviting to people at times because it’s so intricate and subtle, where slam poetry is more engaging and acceptable,” he said.

Most often poetry slams are competitions between poets.

Each poet during tonight’s competition will be allowed 3 1/2 minutes to perform.

 They will be rated by audience members who will be randomly selected as judges.
There will be a short open mic portion before the competition.

“We don’t want to turn anyone away,” Kelly said.

There is a suggested $5 donation, but the event is free.

Kelly said the group is trying to raise funds to go to the National Poetry Slam Competition in Boulder, Colo. Last year, he was a part of a small group of IU students who went to the national competition in New York City.

Writing slam poetry is a different process than page poetry, he said.

“Page poetry is all about just writing off the page, and just you think off the page,” he said.

With the time limit, slam takes more finesse, he said.

“If you want to pack a lot of words into it, you have to do some rehearsal,” Kelly said.

Writing poetry helps him organize his thoughts, he said. He said he tends to write about death, as his mother was previously diagnosed with cancer.

“I can’t really do it when I’m in the thick of it,” he said. “I have to experience something, and then I can write about it afterward.”

Despite the personal information he often expresses in his poems, Kelly doesn’t get nervous performing. He said it doesn’t bother him.

“I’ve had people approach me and be like, ‘Hey you don’t know me at all, but I know about your life because I’ve seen you perform,’” he said. “I think it’s weirder for other people than it is for me.”

Kelly said he’s just an open person and likes the pressure of performing because it pushes him.

“I wish I got to see everybody I know perform slam poetry because it would be cool to see what came out of people,” he said.