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Russell Simmons’s poetry jam comes to town
BY LIZA WEISSTUCH
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A few decades on, when cultural historians try to fix that moment when poetry became chic again, they just might peg the day last June when hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons took the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event for Def Poetry Jam. Since the Beat scene flourished and faded, poetry has been simmering just under the pop-culture radar, most recently in the form of old-school hip-hop and at the Nuyorican Poets Café in the East Village, where slams attract crowds of lyrically inclined, politically minded motormouths. But when Simmons tapped into the scene, he did for spoken word what he’s done for hip-hip, catapulting it to the masses. Simmons — who chairs Def Jam Records and heads Phat Fashions — created Def Poetry Jam as a stage spinoff of his HBO show Def Comedy Jam. After running on Broadway for 198 performances, it hit the road; it will bounce into the Colonial Theatre on Tuesday. Beau Sia is one of the eight poets who make up an ensemble as diverse as a United Nations assembly. The performers are unified by their knack for spinning rhythmic verses that address identity, angst, and injustices. Sia, who is Chinese-American, has been with the show since its genesis as an HBO series, and as far as he’s concerned, this is exactly the shape he predicted his life would take back as a teen in Oklahoma City. Although he introduces most of his comments with a declaration of his egotism, his words have the ring of self-depreciation. Well, what can you expect from a guy whose obsession with poetry began in junior high as an attempt to impress a girl? (He claims his swim-team standing wasn’t quite the chick magnet.) "I’m really arrogant," he says over the phone from Atlanta. "From the beginning, everyone was telling me I wouldn’t survive from poetry. People write me now and say, ‘I always knew you could do it.’ "I believed that I was gonna do something with poetry from the age of about 15. I felt like if I kept doing it, something would happen for me. By virtue of being in honors classes, I heard all about the lives of great scientists, people who charted paths that had been considered foolish. I applied what I heard in physics and chemistry to writing. I had to attempt something no one had really done before. Then I moved to New York and it was like, ‘Damn! Everyone’s doing it!’ " Still, being surrounded by so many other poets, not to mention some of the chief personalities in hip-hop, accelerated Sia’s cruise down the path he had charted. His swimmer’s lungs helped too. "I wasn’t good at performing, but I could out-yell people’s judgments." It was what he yelled, though, that earned him a spot on the Nuyorican’s National Poetry Slam team, and that led to his gig in Def Poetry. From that vantage point, he’s seen attention to the spoken word broaden from grungy coffeehouses to the Great White Way. But instead of lamenting that the mainstream is diluting the art form, he sees the widespread exposure as a way to spread the word. "I always grew up with people who don’t look like me. I get more excited [about audience diversity] because those are the people who need to hear what I have to say. They haven’t been exposed to it. America has this idea of ‘individualism,’ but not really. People like to categorize quickly so they can fit you in the machine. I bring a sense of individualism to the audience that’s specific toward how they view Asian-Americans. My poetry isn’t all about Asian-American stuff, but my not doing the things you’re used to seeing of us on TV and films creates another way to look at an Asian-American face." Def Poetry Jam plays December 9 through 14 at the Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston Street in the Theater District. Tickets are $25 to $65; call (617) 931-2787.
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