Feature Story: The Pitch

Because Burlington, Vermont is so much less urban, both by definition and in culture, than other major cities around the country, its slam poetry culture is also very unique. Therefore, by extension, slam poems by Burlington- and other Vermont-based poets have mixed success on national stages because of their limited experience with poverty, gang violence, and other politically-charged issues that tend to appeal to the judges in large events. For this story I'll be looking into whether this was a factor in the decline of Burlington's slam community, and whether local poets are capable of succeeding on a national level without relying on stories of personal tragedy or political agendas. I plan to attempt to speak to national poets Buddy Wakefield and Taylor Mali (and potentially others), as well as Vermont slam poet Geof Hewitt.

Promising People You're Not A Pervert Probably Won't Help Your Case

I'm not often in a position where I'm overly concerned that people will consider me a pervert. When assigned to go somewhere that made me uncomfortable and hang out there for twenty minutes, I decided to go to Victoria's Secret in the Church Street Mall. It worked far better than I hoped it had.


At first I was going to go play basketball with the guys that play every Monday in the gym, but I figured I was too likely to chicken out of that. I needed to go downtown anyway, so I figured Victoria's Secret was somewhere I could just walk into, and hopefully avoid eye contact with everyone. I know some guys that are totally okay with walking around in womens' underwear stores. I am not one of those people.


Pretty much as soon as I walked in the door, I was asked if I was finding everything alright. I was doing my best to stay glued to my phone, partly because I needed to be live-tweeting about the experience but mostly because I wanted to retreat as far as I could from reality. A few minutes later, I had been asked if I needed help by every employee in the store, as far as I know. They probably figured I was looking for something for a girlfriend or whatever, I'm sure, but I was convinced they thought I was just being creepy.


I had a really hard time just walking into the store. When I got to it, I looked around to see if there were any other stores around that might be less agonizingly awkward but would still be uncomfortable to be in, but no dice. I had to do it. For the whole time I was in the store, I had an immense feeling of stress. I ended up not being able to stay for the whole twenty minutes because that feeling quickly became unbearable. When I left I was highly relieved, but afterward, whenever I thought back on it, I'd shudder. It wasn't the underwear that bothered me--it was the obvious scrutiny of everyone in the store wondering why I was there. Whether that was all in my head, I have no idea, but it was pretty awful nonetheless.


I have a very strong (and often irrational) fear of what people think of me. I knew that wherever I went for this assignment I would probably have to face that, but this was definitely worse than I had anticipated. It goes to show how much I need to get over myself when it comes to putting myself in situations like this, because I'll have to if I ever want to pursue journalism in any professional capacity.

Interview: Kim Jordan

The subject of my interview is Kim Jordan, Performance Writing Coordinator of Vermont’s Young Writers’ Project. Kim directed Burlington’s slam community from 1999 to 2003, and was a member of Vermont’s national poetry slam team. Now, in addition to helping run the YWP, she also teaches acting at Champlain College. My angle for this interview was to get her to detail her life in the slam community, and how she got from starting the slams in Burlington to competing on the national stage to doing what she does now.

            I’m in one of about thirty metal folding chairs in a cozy basement room of the Winooski Mill. We’re all facing the front of the room, which is lit mostly by a single lamp next to a makeshift stage, on which stands a microphone. Kim Jordan, a woman in her mid-thirties with a forest of curly black hair and a broad smile, gestures to the front of the audience.

            “And for our next poet,” she says, “please welcome to the stage… Jude!”

Although she’s not on the list of poets competing in the slam, her natural stage presence is obvious. She leads the audience in applauding the next poet, then bows off the stage.

I sat down with Kim after the slam to talk to her about her experience with the Burlington slam community. She moved to Burlington from New York in 1998, and in 2000 became the host of the Burlington Poetry Slam, which was held twice-monthly at the Rhombus Gallery, a performance venue in downtown Burlington. The slam community quickly gained momentum, and once a month a qualifying slam was held, the top three poets of which would qualify to compete in a slam in the spring. The first of these slams was held in the spring of 2000, and it was packed. The top five poets that night, including Kim Jordan, became Vermont’s first official national poetry slam team.

The national scene was starkly different from the atmosphere the Burlington team was used to. “Going to the national level,” Kim said, “we realized our poems weren’t urban. They’re reflections of the lives we have… our voices aren’t as loud.” Slam poetry is an art form that’s all about self-expression in a much more visceral and revealing way. As such, slam judges often expect heart-wrenching life stories from the poets, which the poets from Vermont weren’t necessarily equipped to give.

Kim didn’t seem to mind, though. “[It’s] really about poetry, and about community,” she said. She collaborated with (and shared a couch with) poets like Marty McConnell, Staceyanne Chin, and Buddy Wakefield, saying that even in a culture that’s by definition competitive, it was never about the competition.

In 2003, the Rhombus Gallery closed, and the Burlington Poetry Slam closed with it. Slams have emerged in a variety of other venues since then, but never for long. “It’s all about finding the right venue,” Kim said. “[one that] doesn’t care if people don’t want to buy drinks.”

Kim was also reaching a limit for how much she could contribute to the community. “It was a full-time job I wasn’t getting paid for,” she said.

            While the slam community was dwindling, Kim was working as a Teaching Artist at the Flynn Theater and running poetry workshops in schools. Geoff Gevalt, director of the Young Writers’ Project, wanted to run a slam at the Flynn, and Kim was the natural link between the two. From there, she started work with the Project, and eventually became its Performance Writing Coordinator.

            Kim’s still trying to revitalize slam culture in Burlington, corresponding with local students who share her enthusiasm but, unlike her, have the time to organize events and even teams. She hopes that, through the local community and the Young Writers’ Project, slam poetry in Burlington can be as big as it used to be. 

Media Meditation: Black and White

            I’m not really one for anime, typically, but I got talked into watching the movie Tekkon Kinkreet recently. The title is a play on the Japanese tekkin konkurito, meaning steel-reinforced concrete, as if mispronounced by a child. The story follows two children in the fictional Treasure town—Black, who’s tough and jaded; and White, who’s childish and innocent—who live on the streets and know them better than anyone in the city. The movie follows their struggle against the yakuza that try to take over the town, and eventually Black’s struggle against his own psyche. It’s brilliantly written, and the characters are brutally relatable.

            The movie is really adept at striking chords on the limbic level. The music does a really good job of conveying the atmosphere of the grandeur of the city while still matching the tone of whatever’s going on with the plot or within the character’s minds at the time. Listen to one of the tracks here.

            Less about the movie and more about how I watched it, the whole experience is generally a good example of both aesthetic and digital shifts. I watched this movie on the Internet, after a bit of digging, which shows how media platforms are converging—I can use the same medium I use for communicating with friends and doing research, for example, to watch a movie on a whim. It also indicates a technological shift because not only does this movie use a lot of obviously digitally-created sequences (I don’t know how much of it was actually digitally done), but it’s also being delivered on a platform that’s entirely digital.

            As a creative medium, this movie is obviously an example of individual meaning. There are a lot of subtleties involved with the characters’ actions and relationships that can be interpreted in a number of ways. I think this is part of what separates good movies, books, etc. from bad ones. It’s also a really strong example of emotional transfer—the characters are very tangible, and the movie touches the limbic brain in all the right ways to really convey their emotions to the viewer.

            Again, the movie is a creative medium, so it doesn’t necessarily have an argument to make. It does, however, display some common persuasive techniques. One of these is "warm fuzzies"—White is adorable both in appearance and character, and that does a lot to establish an emotional connection with the viewer. The technique of timing is also present, though it could probably be more accurately described as pacing. The plot moves forward at such a pace as to keep the viewer interested while also establishing the characters really well.

            Like I said, I don’t watch too much anime, but I was really glad I spent the two hours on this one. Both the visuals and writing are phenomenal, and it was one of the more unique movies I’ve seen in a while. Definitely a worthwhile watch, even  for those who aren’t anime fans.

Media Meditation: The No Longer Secret Knots

I discovered the webcomic The Secret Knots through StumbleUpon, a web service that uses your personal interests to deliver pages it thinks you’ll like—and it’s scarily good at it. I had it set to a variety of things—poetry, indie music, video games, etc. and found this comic. I assumed it had shown it to me based on the “video games” subject, but it piqued my interest on a neocortical level for a different reason. I’m a big film and literary geek, so I get really excited when I see good writing, and it seemed like this comic had it. It was really well-structured and incredibly unique. When I see this kind of thing, I’m driven to read more not because it’s entertaining, but because it’s well done. I have a nigh-uncontrollable urge to explore things that I think are what I consider “brilliant,” a descriptor I don’t assign lightly.

The comic, and the rise in popularity of webcomics in general, indicates an epistemological shift. Internet users tend to have short attention spans, and image-based media tend to be more effective at grabbing our attention. This comic is especially good at it, with is distinct color schemes and unique art style.

One of the strengths of this comic is the principle of individual meaning. A lot of the comic’s appeal comes from its writing—specifically, how open it is to interpretation. This one is a particularly good example. The people commenting generate a really great discussion about what the ending could potentially mean, which is a sign of really good writing, because it gives the reader a real sense of involvement.

As a medium based in entertainment, this comic doesn’t necessarily have a point to prove. However, it does display some elements of persuasive techniques. For example, it, like any good piece of creative writing, is packed with value messages for the reader to uncover. Many of the strips, like this one, could be interpreted as societal commentaries, while others operate on a more personal level.

Unfortunately, The Secret Knots doesn’t update as often as I’d like (only a few times a year), because whenever I read it I’m simultaneously stunned and inspired. It takes real talent to write like that, and this comic nails it.

PAX: A Media Meditation

            So I kind of accidentally went to PAX East over spring break. I say “accidentally” because I had ridden down with a bunch of friends to Boston, where it was being held, and they incidentally had acquired an extra three-day pass, and I didn’t have anything to do for the Friday and Sunday we were down there. I was there for a Magic: The Gathering pro tour qualifier, but I ended up spending more time at PAX than at the tournament.

            PAX East (short for Penny Arcade Expo) is probably the East Coast’s biggest gaming convention, hosted by the guys who write the incredibly successful webcomic Penny Arcade.  They host it twice a year, once in Seattle and once in Boston, and it’s a huge deal for fans and developers alike.

            My travel plans were a little unclear for the whole weekend, so I never knew if I was going back to any particular place. As a result, I ended up carrying around a messenger bag loaded with everything I needed for the weekend, as well as a rolled up sleeping mat that I only ended up using once (god damn that thing), for the entire time. Because of that, I didn’t really get a chance to explore the expo, because I didn’t really want to haul all of that around to booths and stuff, so I just ended up sitting and playing Magic with random people that I met.

            I did get to wander the expo hall for a bit, and from what I saw, the whole convention is based on the epistemological shift from text to images. The main floor of the convention was dominated by huge banners and screens playing game trailers. This kind of presentation caters to our generation’s short attention span and desire for instant gratification. Every display was designed to immediately get the attention of passersby and hook them into whatever demo/product/whatever they were displaying.

            Another driving force of the convention is the principle of ownership. The entire con is based on the game industry, which is, obviously, an industry, based on commercialism and ownership of products. Although the developers don’t really talk about the fact that games (video games, tabletop games, etc.) are products, that’s really the bottom line.

Duke Nukem knows what's up (photo credit: Boyd Pellett)

            There are a few persuasive techniques that seemed to be rather popular among the booths that I saw. One of these in particular was what some might call “beautiful people”—the use of attractive people to attract people to booths. Unlike other cons, where “booth babes” are common, PAX generally frowns on that sort of thing. Even so, there was definitely a distinct pattern of attractive women working the booths, even though they weren’t scantily clad like the ones at other cons.

            Since I hadn’t really ever traveled on my own, the trip was a little ridiculous. Since I wasn’t with family or whatnot, I could afford to have pretty nebulous plans, so I ended up at the biggest gaming con in the East unplanned. And it was awesome. Go figure.

Game Informer

Magazine in question—Game Informer, October 2010

The triune brain in action:

First, the neocortex, informing the reader “hey, a new BioShock game!” which the reader will ideally be excited about (read the announcement here).

Second, the limbic brain, using appealing designs and a sort of sepia-toned, vintage feel (worked on me).

Some shifts:

Epistemological shift—the cover has very few words on it, and relies primarily on its image to draw the reader in. This is shown in the rest of the magazine, too, which is packed with pictures. Video games in general are also an image-driven medium. For example, the trailer for BioShock Infinite is almost completely wordless.

Some of the shifts are shown in the recently enormous video game industry, like the shift from mass media to personal/participatory. Especially because recent games allow the player to connect online, video games are an especially personal and participatory medium.

Some principles:

Production techniques—this goes back to the cover that appeals to the limbic brain—well-designed, concise, and especially appealing to a certain audience. This applies to the rest of the magazine, too—some of the articles are tilted for dramatic effect, and there’s obviously a lot of deliberation in the font choices, colors, page organization, etc.

Emotional transfer—this ties in pretty closely with production techniques, in that the way the magazine is designed plays a big part in how the reader subconsciously receives it.

Pacing—it’s not uncommon for someone to quickly flip through a magazine, and the organization of this one, what with the spacing of the ads and pictures and whatnot, makes the reader want to open it to a single page and start reading. Once inside, the actual articles are mostly paced to appeal to this generation’s inattentiveness, with lots of graphics and short paragraphs.

Persuasive techniques:

Since this medium is journalistic in nature, most of these don’t apply. The most obvious one that applies, though, is nostalgia, which refers to the cover specifically. The relatively simplistic, vintage design does a lot of work to intrigue the reader—the issue is even labeled “October, 1912.”

That's all for now. Until next time, strive to be interesting.