Eclectic Truth Poetry Slam to Baton Rouge SLAM! An Obituary for Summer 2016: a recording of critical performance ethnography

ABSTRACT

This account of critical performance ethnography focuses on how Eclectic Truth Poetry Slam in Baton Rouge, LA, responded to a crisis-filled summer 2016. Summer 2016: political tensions were at a boiling point in a parish flooded with water and lost lives. Fall 2016: over half of all Eclectic Truth slam poems performed by local poets referenced that summer’s successive tragedies. With permission from local poets, I collected ethnographic fieldwork, theatricalized their slam poems, and adapted our co-created interviews to script Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016 for Baton Rouge audiences and beyond.

KEYWORDS:

• Baton Rouge
• Poetry Slam
• ethnography
• performance
• script

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.