Mootsy’S Starting Monthly Slams

Most of the year, this column lists a number of effete literary and poetry events for the refined reader.

This week, however, is different.

Since most everything writerly closes down the week after Christmas, the calendar is wide open for a poetry slam.

So Erik Bergloff, host of the slam at the recent Get Lit! literary festival, is kicking off what he hopes will be a monthly slam competition at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Mootsy’s Tavern, 406 W. Sprague.

Slams are competitions, he stresses. Each performance goes for three minutes, and contestants can do pretty much whatever they want except use props.

“You can read it, you can sing it, you can jump around if you want to get the piece across,” he says.

The point is to celebrate poetry in a way that brings it down from the proverbial ivory tower.

“Some people think poetry readings are kind of stuffy, buttoned-up things,” Bergloff says. “Slams kind of let them unbutton and let down their pants a bit.”

Bergloff’s ultimate aim is to form a Spokane slam team that, he hopes, will prove good enough to perform at the annual national poetry slam (to be held in May this year in Seattle).

“I think when we have a team, it’s going to be tough to beat,” he says.

And why does he think this? Because, he says, if the audience at the Get Lit! slam was any indication, Spokane is a a rough crowd. “It’s probably the roughest crowd I’ve ever seen,” Bergloff says.

The Mootsy’s slams will be scheduled for the final Thursdays of each month. An open-mic night, titled “Poetry for the People,” will be scheduled for the second Thursday with Kristy White as host.

Admission to the slams will be $1.

“I like to be able to give whoever wins some sort of money prize,” Bergloff says. “It helps them out, and it gives them more incentive.”

For further information, call Mootsy’s at 838-1570.