Poetry slam or slam poetry is the act of poets reciting their works to add feeling and emotion to their poems. The beauty of pronunciation, the sound of hearing someone's words in the tone they meant it to be heard in, cannot be achieved through paintings or drawings. Artists can capture a mood or feelings in a single still frame, however, a poet can change their tones, breathe renewed life into a poem. There is an emphasis on not only the writing but also performing. Art is hung in galleries, slam poetry echoes through the walls of sound halls, is recorded and posted on YouTube, can be performed live for all to enjoy. With slam poetry, there is an empowerment in chanting the writings you have forged as a wordsmith.

All forms of art are important, however, I believe slam poetry to be the rawest, the purest meaning in the sense of the word art. Art is about self-expression, making a statement, showing what you believe in. Expressing passion in a stroke of a brush is entirely different than slowing anger and screaming it out at the top of your lungs, to invoke emotion, to have the audience hear your emotions, rather than just seeing them. I could paint a metaphorical picture of someone religious committing suicide and wondering what will happen in the next life, but I could also scream the words "Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself?" Which we see in La Dispute's King Park. The emotions captured in a painting are set. Unless an artist repaints or interprets the image in another way, it is set. I can speak in passion, in anger, in sadness, which is the beauty to slam poetry. Even picking up someone else's poem and reading it how you think it should be read, there is a simple beauty in that which I love.

Paint, write, sketch, make art. The point of this article was not to knock artists in any way but to show how vastly a spoken word poem contrasts from most other forms of artwork. As there are different messages to convey in a painting or sculpture or even that doodle you made in your Introduction to Trigonometry class, there are different messages in any spoken word poem. Comedic writings, writings of heartbreak or loss, writings of anger over real word events, directly mirror those in other forms of arts. There is a rawer feeling to slam poetry, though, to hear something aloud is entirely different than just reading it. You can capture the word of a novel, but to hear that novel be spoken, to hear each character's voices differentiated and to set the mood of a setting with a tone varying from lighthearted to dark, that is a transcending experience.

I implore you, create art. Express yourself through your work. Write a poem, write a poem even if you claim you cannot write. Work up the courage to record that, show your family, your friends, your loved ones. Capture the raw emotion that is your voice combined with your thoughts, and create your art.