With the dog days of summer upon us, we thought now might be the ideal time to let our minds wander back to late spring in Portland and all that we loved about it: cooler temperatures, rainy mornings, and, of course, the Bigfoot Poetry Festival.
Since its founding in 2019, the Bigfoot Poetry Festival has gathered hundreds of poets from around the country to various venues in downtown Portland, which, to our delight, includes Literary Arts. And each year, it’s a joy to see our event space buzzing with so many poets competing in slam competitions, attending workshops, and selling books at the poetry marketplace. Now that we’re two months out from the festival, which ran from June 13-15, we caught up with co-founder Julia Gaskill to hear her reflections on this year’s run. Naturally, our conversation meandered to wider discussions on poetry as an art form and what makes Portland a great city for poets, all of which we’re happy to share with you below.
Literary Arts: Can you share a bit about the Bigfoot Poetry Festival’s origin story?
Julia Gaskill: The Bigfoot Poetry Festival was first conceived on a bus in Chicago in August of 2018. At the time, the national poetry slam scene was going through the ringer, so several other Portland poets and I decided that we’d try to put on a poetry slam tournament of our own. Less than a year later, the first ever Bigfoot Poetry Festival (then called the Bigfoot Regional Poetry Slam) took place in downtown Portland! I was recently reminded that I came up with the festival name as a joking placeholder, but I guess it stuck (much to the chagrin of cryptid enthusiasts online!).
LA: For anyone reading this who might be new to slam poetry and the competition element, could you talk a little about its history and what attending a slam is like?
JG: Slam is credited to Marc Smith, who started the first ever poetry slam back in the 1980’s in a bar in Chicago. Its growth was small at first, only a few slams popping up in bars and cafes around the country. Nowadays, any major city is going to have at least one or two poetry slams that you can attend. Poetry slams vary from scene-to-scene, but most are pretty similar. There are two to three rounds that poets must make it through. Five random members of the audience are selected as judges, and they are given markers and scoreboards. Those judges then score poems in the slam anywhere from a 0.0 to a 10.0. The high and low scores for each poem are tossed, and the middle three are added to give the performer their score.
Poetry slams are typically high-energy, compelling, and just an all-around good time. Our former Oregon poet laureate, Anis Mojgani, has a good way of phrasing it: poetry slams are a way to trick people into listening to poetry. Slam is presented as a competition, a game, which adds an enticing element of stakes for the audience, but psych! Folks are just intaking a lot of amazing poetry! A win-win for everyone.
LA: Not only are you the co-founder of this festival, but you’re also the organizer and host of various poetry events around town—including Slamlandia, which we love to host once a month here at Literary Arts. You’re also the author of the full-length poetry collection weirdo, published in 2022 by Game Over Books. Whether on page or on stage, poetry is clearly a meaningful part of your life. What are some of the reasons (mysterious or otherwise!) why you’re drawn to poetry as an art form?
JG: I was a kid who often wrote poetry growing up, and while I enjoyed it, I never felt like my work best reflected what I was trying to say. It wasn’t until I reached college and started discovering more contemporary poets—Andrea Gibson, Sarah Kay, Shane Hawley, and Phil Kaye were all pivotal to twenty-year-old-me’s journey as a writer—that I really was able to start finding my own voice. I always enjoyed the poetry I read in school, but I think there was only so much that the likes of Shakespeare and Frost could offer a young girl in the mid-to-late 2000’s. Finding contemporary poets, especially spoken word poets, allowed me to venture away from writing only about unrequited love and nature, and suddenly I could touch on topics that meant so much more to me.
LA: What do you think is unique about poetry, and what does it make possible?
JG: Poetry is a form of endless possibilities. You can take your reader/audience on a multiple-page-long sweeping journey, or you can say so much in only a few lines. Poetry can be nuanced, or it can be in your face. No emotion, experience, or topic has gone untouched. What’s more, ten poets can write on the same subject, and I guarantee that not only will you get ten wildly different takes on the topic, but you’ll also get different lengths, line breaks, cadences, imagery, and more. Poetry can touch on the everyday mundanity of a single person, or it can speak to grand, wide-reaching themes that affect everyone. Poetry can do everything and more, if you just give it that chance.
LA: Which poets are inspiring you right now?
JG: I’ve been reading a lot of Palestinian poets over the last ten months. I’ve revisited Noor Hindi’s book Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow. a number of times, as well as work by Naomi Shihab Nye and George Abraham. Some of my favorite poets as of late are Franny Choi, Hanif Abdurraqib, Catherine Weiss, Danez Smith, Will Evans, Rachel McKibbens, and Sabrina Benaim. And honestly, as cheesy as it is to say, I’m currently SO inspired by the spoken word poetry community here in Portland! Since coming back to in-person shows in 2022 and bringing back the Bigfoot Poetry Festival in 2023 [after the pandemic-induced hiatus], the number of folks coming out and sharing their work has been amazing. It’s been wonderful watching new voices spring up and to witness their growth.
LA: Pivoting back to the festival, and for readers who love a good behind-the-scenes glimpse, how does the Bigfoot Poetry Festival happen? What are the moving parts and who is involved?
JG: The Bigfoot Poetry Festival is a huge endeavor—a lot goes on behind the scenes to pull it off. For plotting out a poetry festival and tournament, there are a number of things to do: we have to find venues, submit grant applications, advertise in various ways, do school outreach, purchase snacks and swag for poets, set up registration, draw for the competition order, communicate with our registered poets, find volunteers, discuss COVID precautions, reach out to potential sponsors and donors, and so much more.
It’s a lot of work to put on a three-day poetry festival, and I’m thankful to not be in it alone. At this time, the organizing crew is made up of myself, Stephen Meads, Jane Belinda, Brennan DeFrisco, and Adam Barentine. Over the course of nine months, we had at least twenty meetings (both in person and over Zoom), texted non-stop, and ate our fair share of Rovente’s pizza. For anyone thinking of putting on a festival of any sort, I cannot emphasize enough how much easier it is when you have a good group of folks to work alongside!
LA: If you were to describe the Bigfoot Poetry Festival in three words, what would they be?
JG: Engaging. Special. Community.
LA: Now that the dust has settled after another successful run, what are some of your favorite moments from this year’s Bigfoot Poetry Festival that are staying with you?
JG: Seeing so many of my friends from all over the country is always my biggest highlight of any big poetry event. Outside of that: seeing Evris Oake (a poet from Kansas City) perform a poem at midnight in the middle of downtown Portland because a friend asked them to, every poem shared at the Nerd Poetry Slam, Adriana Es Ramírez and Cynthia French hilariously hosting the Feel Good Mic, the late night poetry cypher outside of the Shake Shack, and the Youth Slam have to be some of my favorite moments of this year’s festival. A particular highlight was hosting the Finals Stage event—the perfect culmination after ten months of planning.
LA: It really is amazing to see hundreds of poets traveling here from all over the country. What would you say is special about the Bigfoot Poetry Festival community that keeps people coming back to Portland year after year?
JG: There’s a feeling of camaraderie at Bigfoot that, truthfully, I haven’t seen at many other regional or national competitions. Each time, everyone has been so warm and welcoming. Folks come to the writing workshops and open mics during the days, cheer each other on at their preliminary slam bouts, and show up for one another. It’s been a beautiful thing to witness each year.
LA: What advice might you give to someone who is curious about getting more involved with slam poetry, but isn’t sure about where to start?
JG: Come out to one! Chances are there’s a poetry slam or two in your area. I always recommend, if you’re curious but not sure if it’s for you, just attending a slam as an audience member to get a feel for things. If you’re local to Portland and have been thinking about checking one out, come to Slamlandia sometime—we’d love to see you there!
Answers have been edited for length.
