Poetry with a twist

Amy Steinberg slams at The Crux

By Genny McLaren

Chico slam poetry calendar

On a cold quiet Monday night in November, The Crux Art Collective is loud and warm. Amy Steinberg is on the bright orange stage, singing for about 20 guests.

She is sitting on a chair on the stage. She is wearing a black flowing, knee-length skirt, black leggings with a hole on the right knee, brown cowboy boots with orange and red flowers embroidered on them, a bright teal T-shirt, a purple velvet jacket and a bright orange scarf with long tassels. Her personality is like her clothing: loud, bright, engaging and colorful.

Steinberg is a slam poet.

Slam poetry began in Chicago in 1986 by Marc Smith, a construction worker, according to Slampoetry.com. Since its creation in a bar, it has evolved from coffee shop poetry reading to a full-fledged national competition, where teams write and recite their own poetry and battle it out for bragging rights.

Chicopoetreeslam, used to be Chico's team, but it has since gone out of existence, said team creator Tazuo "Taz" Yamaguchi. Taz is also a slam poet and films most of the competitions professionally.

"We are really struggling in Chico," Taz said.

Steinberg was visiting Chico for the second time in the last year, and she gathered a small crowd of loyal followers. They were all scrunched together on two orange benches in front of the stage, and a few mismatched, paint-spattered chairs.

"I love this space," Steinberg said about the Crux. "It is starkly, coldly, warm - like my mother."

Steinberg doesn't perform like traditional slam poets, she adds a musical component to her work, which isn't allowed in competitions, but private shows are a whole different story.

Steinberg plays both the guitar and the keyboard, and plays them while performing. Her voice is raspy and soulful, comparable to Norah Jones or Michelle Branch.

Steinberg kept the crowd entertained, she mixed it up by switching from long drawn-out melodic chords to short choppy staccato-type speech patterns.

"I feel very authentic."
-- Matt Zelmer.

Her songs ranged in topic from love and loss to spending money and consumerism to getting laid, and she transitioned from indie-hip rocker to comedian in seconds. She moved straight from commentary with the audience into a song, with no hitches.

She had the audience singing and dancing in their seats, with her folky, bluesy, funky, style. Even the first-time guests got involved and sang along to the catchy tunes.

Despite the lack of a slam team in Chico, there is still a prominent existence of poets here.

The opening act for Steinberg was 20-year-old Matt Zellmer, a Chico State student studying English and creative writing. He performed a self-written poem called "Growing into a Moment," which is about finding a place in a world that likes to package people, he said.

"It was inspired by feelings of identity crisis and confusion," he said.

One line from the poem, "A dance of death can't be danced to the beat of anyone else's drum," really displays Zellmer's promotion of individuality.

"When I perform I feel very much like me," he said. "I feel very authentic."

About a minute into his performance, Zellmer forgot his poem, and had to grab his notebook to refresh his memory. He then tossed his notebook into the crowd, only to forget again, forcing him to run offstage to retrieve it.

The rest of his performance went on, without a hitch or hiccup.

In the middle of the show, Steinberg was talking to the audience and was talking about how in each show she performs; she always dedicates it to one person. She pointed to me and said I looked like I had had "one of those days."

The night was very entertaining, and for just $6 I got to experience over two hours of performance, which was all dedicated to me - it doesn't get much better than that.