Poetry a slam dunk for Art Center

MOUNT CLEMENS — It has featured sculptures, paintings, fiber and photographs and, as of late October, spoken word poetry has found a home at the Anton Art Center.

The art center hosted its first poetry slam on Oct. 30, filling the second-floor gallery with over 30 interested members of the public and nine poets vying to be the sultan of the slam.

“Several were poets, several were community members who came to see the show,” Anton Art Center Executive Director Matt Matthews said. “There was some wider pull from outside (Mount Clemens.) There was an Oakland University student who came and competed in the slam. A young woman from Ray Township came and competed in the slam and finished in second place.”

Slam poetry combines a poetry reading with the thrill of competition, turning audience members into judges of a battle of both the strength of a poet’s work and their stage presence.

“The idea of a poetry slam is that it’s a way to make it into a very lighthearted competition to, I guess, tweak a people’s love of competition in general,” event organizer Harry Campion said. “The idea that you can put a numerical score on poetry in the first place is a little bit ridiculous. But on the other hand, it can also feel extremely validating when it goes your way.”

Campion had been a high school educator for 30 years, turning his experience teaching creative writing into a retirement career of running poetry workshops and organizing poetry slams. Campion’s classes and events lead to him being a founder of the poetry slam tournament at the Grand Hotel’s speech tournament. Matthews approached Campion at the Shelby Township Library in the spring of 2023 about running some workshops and hosting a slam at the Anton Art Center.

Both Matthews and Campion were happy with the turnout and have begun discussions about holding a second slam at the Anton Center around Valentine’s Day 2025. Details on the second date are to come.