SF99 Slam Team
The official chapbook of the San Francisco 1999 Poetry Slam team, which tied for first place at this year’s National Poetry Slam. If you’re into poetry at all and have never heard of the slam, then you must be living under a rock. Over 3,000 people attended this year’s final round in Chicago, and “60 Minutes” recently did an entire segment on the phenomenon. Unfortunately this book suffers from the same fate of much slam poetry, which is that it falls horribly flat when put on the printed page. There’s nothing wrong with that at all — slam poetry is meant to be an active medium. Just be warned when you read a book like this that you are only getting 50 percent of the poetry’s impact. Still, a good read. (JP)