Poetry Slam
Tucson Weekly- James DiGiovanna
This poetry documentary Busload of Poets, covers the Slam America tour, which took place in the summer of 2000. Gary Glazner organized and produced the tour, which featured 32 readings in 30 days. He was the Executive Producer and directed this film. We started in Seattle and ended in Providence for the National Poetry Slam. Over 100 poets participated in the tour. The typical time a poet spent on the bus was 4 days. We averaged 30 poets on the bus at any given time. All the poetry events were organized by local poetry slams.
Huge thanks to all the poets and organizers. Special shout out to Arron Yamaguchi who worked on both editing and filming the documentary. He also was on the bus for the longest time of any poet.
Tucson Weekly Review: It's hard to imagine what could be more horrifying than being trapped on a bus full of poets, and this is exactly the task that filmmaker and poet Gary Glazner set for himself.
Busload of Poets documents the Poetry Slam tour, wherein over 100 poets gathered and traveled, reciting their poems for anyone who'd come listen. While much of the poetry wouldn't work well in written form, a lot of it comes alive due to the force of the poets performances.
The highlight of the film is the Haiku competition, which features such gems as "If brevity is/the soul of wit you’re not as/funny as your dick," and my favorite Haiku ever, "A B C D E/F G H I J K L/M N O P Q."
While the next James Merrill may not have been on the bus, and there is a good bit of what could charitably be called "God-awful doggerel," there are also some fine moments, and some really well delivered pieces that gain force through the highly rehearsed and thoughtfully produced readings.
In 1990, working with Poetry Slam founder and Chicago poet Marc Smith, Glazner produced the first National Poetry Slam, held in San Francisco, California. That first event which had 10 poets from 3 cities participate, grew to over 400 poets from 72 cities. The annual event continued for 27 years. This work placed Glazner at the center of a grass-roots resurgence of poetry as spoken performance. As a pioneer in the world of Poetry Slam, Glazner helped to create a platform to give voice for poets. This work as poet/organizer informed Glazner’s understanding of the power and potential of artist as activist. He uses theses ideas daily in his work with the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project.
Glazner is the editor of Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry, 176 pages, Manic D Press, 2000.
Glazner was a founding board member, of Poetry Slam Inc.
He organized, Slam America Tour, a 30-day, 32-city, performance tour with over 100 poets participating, wrote and secured a grant for $75,000 and over saw budget and reporting, in 2000.
This tour led to Glazner producing and directing the film Busload of Poets.
Busload of Poets
Pasatiempo, Santa Fe New Mexican
"At times the poets featured in the film take on an aura of rock-star status, standing on a stage, yelling their hearts out into a microphone or softly whispering to an audience held spellbound by the words."
The Santa Fe Film Festival hosted the sold out world premier of "Busload of Poets" on the opening night of their second annual festival in December of 2001. The Santa Fe Film Festival had over 12,000 people attend the week-long event, which featured 75 films. "Busload of Poets" was also featured at the Tucson Poetry Festival and at the Knitting Factory in New York and Los Angeles. This digital film project features: Poetry Slam founder Marc Smith, Big Poppa E, the leader of the Wussy Boys, 2000 National Poetry Slam champ, Shane Koyczan, Amalia Ortiz, Cass King, Al Letson and many other hot buttered performance poets. Gary Glazner, Minister of Fun for the nonprofit Poetry Slam Inc.(PSI), produced the tour.