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Thin Air Poetry Slam is back ... for now

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Contributed by: Karen Sucharski on 5/7/2008

The Thin Air Poetry Slam has been ressucitated, at least temporarily. For three dates this spring the Gill Foundation at 315 E. Costilla St. has generously offered to host poetry slam for all of those competitive performance poets who have been languishing since the slam lost its venue nearly two years ago.

"We seem to have a hard time finding someplace to rant," says Slammistress Karen Sucharski.

Since Sucharski took over the slam from its founder, Carol Horen, in 2005 it has been nomadic. Both Horen and Sucharski prefer to have the slam downtown because it is centrally located.

"We have slammers come from all over town," Sucharski notes.

Indeed, there are numerous poetry venues for open mics with the most popular being downtown. The Edifice Gallery on Tejon Street hosts an open mic (edificeclothing.com); there is now a monthly open mic at the Carnegie Room at the Penrose Library, and the Pikes Peak Community College Downtown Studio hosts a first Friday open mic during the school year. If poets want to head west they can attend Sucharski's Goddess Open Mic on the first and third Mondays at Black Cat Books, 720 Manitou Ave. If they want to head east they can attend Luvsaverb at the Village Inn on the corner of Powers and Carefree, usually on the second and fourth Saturdays. But sometimes the Luvsaverb dates change so check out their website luvsaverb.com. The Goddess open mic is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Luvsaverb is from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.

"But open mics aren't enough," says Sucharski, "Poetry slam was founded in the mid-1980's to counteract the boring sort of tea-sipping atmosphere than can prevail at open mics. Slams are now international with some 80 venues around the world with numerous regional competitions each yearand three national competitions per year. This is serious stuff."

Sucharski believes a number of factors contribute to the slam being unable to hold onto a venue. First, there's the language and content of the poems. "Everyone wants to think they are enlightened and can handle four-letter words," Sucharski says. "But not all customers want to hear about some of the more adult themes that are sometimes presented in slam poems and when that first customer walks out the door the venue owners start to have second thoughts."

Second is the fact that not all poets have a lot of money. "Owners see head count and think dollars and then we all order water with lemons in it and they are left with a mess and not a lot of money. I'm sure it's disheartening."

The third factor to consider is that slams are appealing more and more to teenagers who find it to be a fantastic way to be heard on a serious level. So venues need to be all ages, "although we prefer our audience to be 17 years old and older," Sucharski says. "I prefer to do my ranting in a bar. But I also teach slam in the high schools and some of these kids have fantastic poetry that really needs to be shared."

The Gill Foundation facilities will be perfect, open-minded and a wonderful atmosphere, Sucharski says.

The slams are scheduled for May 14, 30 and June 10 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. They are free but donations for Thin Air Poetry Slam and the Gill Foundation will be accepted. For more information email Sucharski at kalikookalehua@aol.com

Karen Sucharski is the Pikes Peak Arts Council Performance Poet of the Year. She has been involved with local poetry for the past two decades.

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