Posted by Paul Devlin:
This poem by Beau Sia is from the 2000 National Poetry Slam in Providence, Rhode Island.
The full set of the poems from that classic competition from the heyday of slam poetry is available for streaming here.
2000 National Poetry Slam Finals: Stream on VHX
SlamNation DVD
SlamNation Trailer
Posted by Paul Devlin:
Here’s some classic Beau Sia. It was excerpted in SlamNation but is presented in its entirety here for your enjoyment.
Posted by Paul Devlin:
Beau Sia’s poem “Money” is now a cultural snapshot from its time of the mid-to-late ‘90s. Beau Sia was a 19-year old wunderkind when he took the stage of the Portland National Poetry Slam Finals, and became an instant star.
This poem gets SlamNation off to a roaring start. In early cuts of the movie, this was not the case. At the time, Marc Smith – “Father of the Slam” – took a look at rough cut and gave me this advice: “You have to start with the end. People need to know where they’re going, that there will be big crowds and high stakes. They need to know that this is not just about your typical boring poetry reading.” Very insightful! So that’s exactly what I did – and Beau’s high energy made him the natural choice to kick things off.
Here’s a moving new poem from our friend Beau Sia, one of the stars of SlamNation.
Notes from Beau Sia:
“if u want to help support our work, one way is to download the audio here.
this is a poem i wrote. a video eyad zahra made. music that dawen created and played beautifully in order to give the piece an emotional depth i am moved by. please check out dawen and eyad’s other work. it’s pretty rad stuff. many thanks to a.r.t., lien, and you for taking the time to listen to what i have to share.”
Posted by Paul Devlin:
Beau performed this pop poem during the New York City stop of Gary Glazner’s cross-country SlamAmerica bus tour in 2000. I caught up with the bus on several legs of the tour and worked with the documentary team to justify my place at the party. The tour had a rotating membership depending on the region and it was great fun traveling with all sorts of clever characters around the U.S.
The tour was captured in Gary’s movie Busload of Poets. We’ll share more fun performances from the mighty SlamAmerica tour, so stay tuned.