Summary: Australia is now well and truly into performance poetry: we have the National Poetry Slam drawing huge crowds every year, and smaller events popping up regularly in our capital cities. But what makes a writer become a performer, and how does performance change the written word? Sky Kirkham examines the nature and history of slam, from Def Jam Poetry and the Nuyorican in the United States, to the Sydney Opera House. Sky talks with Ken Arkind, Josh Donellan, Anis Mojgani, Jive Poetic, Bo Svoronos, and Kate Tempest about their experience as performance poets, and the continuing role of slam in Australian society.
