On Friday December 5, a group of graduate students based in the department of history gathered to read aloud their work at the first Duke History Slam.
What is a history slam, you ask? It’s like a poetry slam but with history. It is an open-format opportunity to present creative historical work to a supportive and sympathetic audience. The inaugural slam was hosted by HAW! (Historians are Writers!), a cohort of graduate students at Cornell University, in the fall of 2007.
Students prepare short works—no more than ten minutes long—attentive to voice, texture, and the infinite possibilities of language. After the first hour, the slam is open-mic. Any spoken (and sung) word is welcome. There’s only one rule: no apologies—a difficult but ultimately rewarding task, as it turns out.
Earlier this semester, graduate students Alisha Hines, Claire Payton, and Farren Yero were fortunate enough to attend “The Pleasure of Producing Good Sentences,” a writing workshop led by Professor Aaron Sachs of Cornell University and generously hosted by the TWP Faculty Write Program, PAL, and the Forum for Scholars and Publics. Professor Sachs has been the faculty sponsor of HAW! for almost a decade.
The workshop participants listened along as Professor Sachs read from an essay written by Guy Davenport titled “Hobbitry.” At different moments the room collectively sighed. And then chuckled. But mostly we were silent. It was a silence that took up the space of the room. One that could be felt, stuck in the back of your throat, or raised, along the hairs of your arm, made to stand on end. It was a silence experienced as a collective, bound by this shared act of listening.
We then parsed the essay into sentences. What was it about that short sentence there, in between those two sentences right here, that led up to this reveal? Inspired by the workshop and excited to revisit our writing, we decided to host our very own gathering.
It proved to be as generative and encouraging as we had hoped. We were thrilled to be joined by Professor Amy Kohout, former coordinator of HAW! and visiting assistant professor of environmental humanities at Davidson College. Professor Kohout shared with us an excerpt from her dissertation introduction, a beautifully moving piece about nature and empire in the American west that weaves together stories of soldiers and scientists who traced the same paths as her own family once did. It was also a piece that grew out of a history slam not so many years ago.
It was an inspiring night, to hear what kinds of history can be told if we are willing to listen. Students presented material from a variety of different documents. Some read from seminar projects, others from conference papers. Students also shared chapters from their dissertations, some just starting out and others preparing to defend. As graduate students, we are taught to communicate at the level of argument. Our writing is organized to quickly convey ideas and interventions. The slam, however, was a chance to shift our attention, to try out new approaches, and to explore what it feels like to speak and listen to our writing aloud. As we plunge towards the end of the semester and deadlines loom ever closer, the slam provided a moment of rejuvenation, a space to reflect and remember why we love what we do.
There will be a second history slam in the spring. As plans come together, we’ll provide additional information. In the meantime, we’re seeking readers who would like to join in this playful event.
Maybe you experiment with time and sequence. Or maybe you play with your position as author. What does it look like to experiment with balance, repetition, and pause? And what can you convey by withholding information?
These questions, and more, can inspire us as historians to consider the effectiveness of particular writing strategies, our experience as listeners and readers, and the spaces we occupy in the history that we ourselves craft.
Please come to share your writing, or just come to listen.
Contact Farren Yero at fey2@duke.edu for more information.
History
