Slam Charlotte! at Erskine College

Christopher Shawn Barker

Erskine College contracted Slam Charlotte! to perform a mock slam open to students only. It was interesting because it is a Christian school and we were EXTREMELY limited with what we were able to say. (To give you some idea, REveLATIONSHIP was deemed inappropriate because of the “I settled into the role of taker like an undercover cop turned junkie” line. My Jigsaw piece was deemed inappropriate because of the tone. (And on and on…)

So, needless to say the majority of us had only a handful of pieces that were venue appropriate. It was a traditional three round slam so I went there with the bare minimum three poems and ended up tied for first and had to do a tie-breaker piece. I had nothing left and ended up having to perform the first poem I ever wrote…and won. lol

The kids loved it and said it was the best show they’d had in the four years they’d been there. Most of them had never been to a poetry slam. Good times!

Watch out for Chris’s new CD, “Mujician”