Local wordsmiths produce a preponderance of poetry

To the uninitiated, the Grand Rapids poetry and spoken word scene may still appear to be an underground movement. But to those in the know, it is exploding in popularity with regular events happening at a myriad of venues across the city.
 
The continued vitality of the community in part may be owed to those like Azizi Jasper, who played a role in ushering the scene from the raucous era of the late 90s and early aughts to the new generation of wordsmith culture. In 2012, Rapid Growth Media covered Azizi, his poetry and the decades-old history of spoken word in Grand Rapids. His influence is still palpable. 
 
I spoke with a few of the current movers and shakers who are actively pumping lifeblood into the scene to see what kind of words are being slung these days, and why it matters.
 
Reigning Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids, Lew Klatt, hails from a scholarly realm of letters. An associate professor of English at Calvin College with a PhD in Creative Writing from University of Georgia, Klatt discovered poetry in college. “I’ve had a long and winding road,” says Klatt. “I don’t think poetry has enough of a public place, so it’s hard to believe that it is a legitimate calling.” But call it did, and now Klatt is an official ambassador of the craft. “[The Laureateship] is an educational role and is meant to expose people to things about poetry that they don’t know,” he says. “I’m a catalyst.”
 
Lew KlattOne facet of that role is to launch public projects aimed at engaging the broader community. His proposed missions include encouraging book clubs to include poetry in their readings; connecting with school children on a project called Grand Poems and Rapid Transit, which delves into the city’s history through the written word; and bringing a graphic arts element into people’s experience with poetry.

“I’m certainly not the only person in town that is interested in promoting poetry,” says Klatt. “It’s all over the city. It’s happening on its own with or without me. I can call attention to it and create certain emphasis.”
 
It’s true, poetry is booming. According to Klatt, collegiate events are drawing hundreds. And outside the sphere of higher education, bars and clubs across town are hosting weekly or monthly events all featuring their own brand of spoken word. The Eastown Hookah Lounge has showcased the Smokin’ Spoken Word event for seven years and counting, which the current host Antonio Taylor says is the “longest, [continuously] running open mic, spoken word show in Michigan.” SpeakEZ Lounge offers a monthly MartiniMOTH storytelling show, The Mixx runs regular poetry jams and Harmony Brewing and Rowster Coffee are getting in on the action, too, not to mention countless other venues.
 
But the new hotbed of live word slinging resides at an event called Drunken Retort, which happens every Monday at Stella’s Lounge. Fronted by Marcel Price, aka Fable the Poet, and G Foster, aka Auto Pilot, the show stems from a wellspring of passion not only for performance-style spoken word but also for community building.
 
“I’ve been doing spoken word a long time,” says Marcel Price. “I learned from Greg Bliss and Azizi Jasper. They really got me into it. I’ve been one of the longest people still doing it to date [from their era] who are really involved in the scene.” Price got turned on to the Grand Rapids poetry world after moving here from Ann Arbor in 2008 and finding a home at the Eastown Hookah Lounge, which was also a pivotal experience for Foster. He got his start at the same Smokin’ Spoken Word events and two years ago the pair teamed up to launch and co-host the Drunken Retort.