Tens across the Board

Abstract

This chapter examines the significance of the verbal and oral articulations of the participants in the Glam Slam, an event held at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe from 1998 to 2008. The Glam Slam brought together the competitive spoken word/slam poetry and Harlem drag ball communities. Similar to the competitive drag balls of New York’s Black and caribeño queer and trans communities, poets walked the runway and, instead of voguing against one another, performed poetry, resulting in a new framework for the proclamation of queer poetics at the Cafe. These poetic and corporeal expressions during the Glam Slam made visible the socially, politically, and economically marginalized communities of color in New York City that have always been at the forefront of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe’s aesthetic.