“Push it, poet:” Whyslam keeps poetry alive in Logan

The eclectic prose of Logan’s hidden poets filled WhySound on Jan. 23 during WhySlam, a recurring slam poetry competition held at the local hole-in-the-wall venue. 

WhySlam poetry nights are typically held once a month at the WhySound venue, but this most recent event came after a four-month hiatus. 

Taylor Wilson, one of WhySound’s owners, said the WhySlam poetry nights were started roughly 10 years ago by two creative writing students from USU. It has run off and on since then but was recently brought back by popular demand. 

“I’m hoping that more of the poet community can rise up, take it over and run it themselves even,” Wilson said. “But for now, we’re really just keeping it alive and keeping it something that people can come out to.”

WhySlam events begin at the door, where attendees pay to be either a reader or a guest. Guests are selected at random to serve as judges for the night’s performers. Readers are allowed two minutes to take the stage and perform their original poems to the judges and audience members.

According to Wilson, most events have 12 performers and five judges. After each poet performs, judges from the audience will use whiteboards to rate each poem out of 10. 

“We’re judging at these, but the whole intention of that is to make it more of a fun environment and kind of push people to think about the poem they’re performing a little more seriously,” Wilson said. 

Readers who received the highest scores then move on to the second round of judging, where winners for third, second and first place are crowned. 

Bryan Sierra, winner of the Jan. 23 WhySlam event, said judges are encouraged to be honest and fair in their ratings to push performers to do their best.

“Usually the feedback is honest and usually Taylor hammers home the point that judges need to be really judgy,” Sierra said. 

WhySound is one of the only venues in Logan that provides a space specifically for slam poetry. Sierra said he has performed twice at WhySlam because he simply “didn’t know where else to perform.”

“It’s a little different than most of our events because most of the events we’re doing are concerts or music-related,” Wilson said. “But lyricism is always based in poetry, so there’s a big connection between songwriting and poetry.”

Sierra said having the ability to perform poetry live provides him and his fellow poets with a unique outlet and community to express themselves. 

“It’s a chance for me to be understood, or at least have the chance to be understood,” Sierra said. 

According to Sierra, the poet community at WhySlam is supportive and genuine, and they provide all performers with a comfortable environment where they can feel free to speak their truths. 

“People here always support each other,” Sierra said. “People will usually come up and talk to you after and say ‘I think you were great,’ and I think that’s really cool.” 

Sierra has been writing poetry for about two years while working at Walmart. When he performs his poetry, he hopes audiences can take away from his readings he is more than just a Walmart associate. 

“It’s really important because sometimes people don’t say what immediately comes to their minds,” Sierra said. “When people do slam poetry, it allows them to release a lot of baggage.”

Winning WhySlam poets are awarded prizes varying from small vintage pumpkin lamps to large wooden cutouts of the word ‘dream.’ According to Wilson, their funky collection of prizes usually comes from local antique or thrift stores.

“It’s just something that the winners can take home to remember the night in some way,” Wilson said. “Sometimes, we’ll do gift cards and things like that too, but usually it’s just some fun, silly stuff.”

According to Britannica, one of the aspects of slam poetry that makes it so unique is the element of audience participation. WhySound incorporates this element through the use of unique callouts that have been adapted to the WhySlam tradition throughout the years.

First-time WhySlam readers are often endearingly nicknamed virgins. Nervous readers in need of a bit of encouragement are told to, “Push it, poet!” Readers whose poems extend the two-minute performance time receive a comical, “You rat bastard, you ruined it for everyone,” from the audience. 

“It’s just fun — there’s a lot of crowd engagement, and it kind of relieves some of the stress of being up there when everyone is engaged and commenting or adding to the fun,” Wilson said. “It’s just little things like that to just push more of a lowkey experience.”