Poetry Slam Outreach: Risks & Rewards
“If the devil’s in the details, where the hell are you?”
These words echoed over the mic at the first ever Portland State Poetry Slam competition. Billed as “Come spit your best Jesus poem: anything goes,” this outreach had incredible potential to fail. It also had the potential to engage an audience that was far from Christ.
Slam Poetry, otherwise known as spoken-word poetry, is gaining recognition across the U.S. and Portland is a hotbed of spoken word artists. Because of the context of the urban, liberal campus of Portland State, we recognized the need to listen first and speak second when it comes to evangelism. People have religious baggage here and are much more likely to engage in a conversation about the claims of Christ if they feel valued.
It was in the desire to engage this reality where the crazy idea of a Poetry Slam was born. Students would be given a platform to present their own poetry based around the theme of Jesus. In the midst of the competition our featured poet, Phil Long (sacrificialpoet.com) would present a compilation of poems, where he shares the Gospel and invites people to respond to the claims of Christ. And although poetry is a lucrative career, a cash prize helps a bit for motivating aspiring poets.
Much like other major outreaches, we blitzed the campuses with advertising, and mobilized our small group of involved students. The result was a room of about a hundred people (large event for PSU) and an environment that was the most engaging and authentic that I’ve ever seen. Student after student poured out their frustrations, hopes and perspectives about Jesus. Phil presented the Gospel in a way that was authentic and engaging. His personality and art diffused any tension that might have been in the room.
There are things we’d change about the night and we know every campus is different, but the environment and tone of the night has built trust and ongoing relationships with students that would never darken the door of a Cru meeting. I highly recommend that you consider this event for your context.
Our prayer is that we did a great job of reflecting God’s heart for people as well as balancing the need to listen in our proclamation of the Gospel. If you’d like more information about this event do not hesitate to ask. Phil is looking forward to seeing this type of event take place on campuses all across the country and will start booking events for this spring.
Blog Comments
Matt, you mentioned “there are things we’d change about the night.” What are a couple of things you’d do different if you could do it over again?
I have just recently began writing slam poetry and I would love to have an event like this on my campus. I am a sophomore at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN. I perform slam poems at our weekly CRU meeting some times but I would love to hear other slam poets spreading God’s word. And likewise, hearing the messages that God has given to me to spread as well.
James,
I’d encourage you to check out Phil’s site - sacrificialpoet.com. There’s also some good stuff on YouTube, including my talented friend Marty Schoenleber. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgORGvC1dTg
Also, if you want this event to come to Butler, talk to your staff team about it. Then help lead the way in making it happen, man!
James-We’d love to get Phil on more campuses. If you are interested in bringing Phil to your campus, contact us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
I’m so excited to see this up here on crupress green! Thanks for taking risks to pioneer a movement and pioneer new strategies, Matt!
Neil,
One of the major things we’d change is having Phil’s featured presentation be shorter…it was to long.
The rest of the things we’d change where really minor…like have more up-tempo music before hand and just a few advertising opportunities we might have missed.
All in all though, it was a great night.
I have a rough cut youtube video of some of the student poets if anyone would like it. I’m not posting it super widely yet for respect reasons (even though they signed a waiver), so let me know and I’ll email it to you.
Marty’s “Push” is brilliant! I SO wish I could write like that…thanks for the link Matt.
The video compilation of our PSU student open mic Poetry Slam is up now… http://www.sacrificialpoet.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=9&Itemid=3
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I was born is raised in Portland and am attending the University so I was able to attend this in person. Was a great event, and the job they did at marketing the event was very well done. Portland State University is an excellent college for all you kids in high school out there. sell textbooks
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