Marc Kelly Smith is the originator of the Poetry Slam, an art form that encompasses the globe. (Photo by C. Schandelmeier, May 25, 2024). 
The Uptown Poetry Cabaret from the Green Mill Tavern is making its way to Space at 1245 Chicago, in Evanston, IL. Marc Smith hosted his second poetry reading there on May 26, 2024. (Photo by C. Schandelmeier) 
Space is the place for the Uptown Poetry Cabaret
Envision a world where conflict is resolved through poetry, and whose creator celebrates what makes people come alive. This is the reality of life for Marc Kelly Smith (say his name, and he adds “So What?”) who is the founder and host of the Uptown Poetry Slam at the Green Mill Tavern. Hosted by Smith, it is the longest running show in the history of Chicago, and, while it was stopped during the COVID-19 lockdown, it is back up and running like a clock, on the second Sunday of each month. The doors open at 2:00 pm and the show begins at 3:00 pm. It is an incredibly popular event with standing room only. Many well-known spoken word artists from Chicago point to the beginning of their careers as happening at the Green Mill tavern under the watchful eye of Smith.
While he has officially become a knight, “a chevalier” in France, where the poetry slam caught on with great fervor, and has traveled not just nationally, but internationally in the name of the poetry slam which he invented, Smith still identifies himself as a blue collar, working class guy who is humble and shy.
“I am an average student from the Southeast side of Chicago…I found my destiny. I never knew that I was going to be on the stage. The universe, if you open your eyes and heart will steer you in the right direction, so, I got steered in the right direction…and then I started writing love letters to Maria Elaina Rosa in high school. Then, it just kept going! I met my wife, Sandy at Western Illinois University and she loved poetry, so I started writing it – and kept on doing it ever since…”
Marc Smith comes alive when he is performing, as does the crowd who gets caught up in his exuberant energy. “I am a very good performer because I have been doing it for over 40 years.” He says with a sparkle of joy in his eyes. He continued,
“It’s kind of ironic that what the universities criticized in the late ‘80s and early 90’s is now taught. We just had a visiting Italian poet, Eleonora Fisko, from the University of Chicago, and her dissertation is on the poetry slam… I am a little leery of the institutionalization of the slam, and I don’t want it to turn into some academic exercise. It is more of a social activist thing than it is a university thing. But everything goes into the university because it is a study of culture.”
The academics who once found his work unappealing are now using the slam in textbooks. Smith’s work is being used the basis for doctoral dissertations for people such as Eleonora Fisko from Italy. She is the new coordinator of the Students Slam Championship, and is pursuing a PhD from both the University of L’Aquila and Lausanne (Switzerland). One academic, Terrance Jacobus, (1949-2023) had been an adjunct professor at Northeastern Illinois University, as well as a DJ for WZRD Chicago 88.3 FM in its punk rock days, helped inspire the form which evolved into the slam through what he called “bouts.” Smith recalled Jacobus’ work:
Terry Jacobus, he had been at WZRD, he was more in the punk scene which was big at that time. He was hanging out with Jerome Sala and a few more, I forget all their names but at first, he was kind of adversarial. We were young and bumping heads. He had a classic poem like “The Raven” he changed into his own style – Terry – and – the punk scene had started a competition, and we were rivals. They assumed it was this goofy competition that made things so popular at the Green Mill. But it wasn’t! It was the performance aspect! In fact, now, I don’t even do a serious competition at the show. There is technique to performance, and that is what made things so strong. The competition that we started at the Green Mill – it was just the last set of the show, and I kept doing it because it is like a theatrical device. It focuses everyone’s attention. It is a downfall because – no one wants the arrogance that they see when everyone is trying to write and perform just to get the money in the pot. That is something I regret about the slam….I just started doing a podcast with the original history of it. Like what Wendell Barry said “poetry is not to glorify the poet, it is to celebrate the community around the poet.’ That is one of the principles I adopted in forming the slams over the years.”
Emily Calvo, a well-known poet and artist, worked with Smith to create the idea of doing performances in two languages, bringing together people across the linguistic divide, through the Speak’Easy Ensemble which creates the One Poetic Voice performance interpretation. “So many people say that they discovered the something that had been missing from their lives with poetry through my work at the Green Mill.” He said.
When asked about his legacy, he responds that his hope is that great artists will be able to point to his work as the place where it all began because, “I consider performance sacred. That is what the slam is, combining the art of poetry with the art of performing. It has changed people’s lives, truly, it has set them on a direction…there are hundreds of stories about people who came together and created poetry, but it became a saving time for me. It is an art form that makes people come alive!” In this way, the poetry slam helps people realize their hopes for a better world, and better lives. May the rest of the world catch up sometime soon.
Poetry in Chicago 