Ed Mabrey has been writing and performing poetry since the Cronkite Building was a dirt lot.
A two-time individual World Poetry Slam champion and the only black American poet to win that title, Mabrey said that a poetry slam, a competition where poets read or recite original work to an audience, is about others sharing their work in a safe environment.
As founder and CEO of Black Pearl Productions, Mabrey created a weekly poetry competition in 2009 at Fair Trade Cafe called the Black Pearl Poetry Slam.
However, the event came to an end Friday night in front of more than 100 people.
His belief is that the Phoenix area is over-saturated with poetry venues. He doesn’t believe in being a hypocrite, so he said he is leading by example and closing his show.
Mabrey said he believed that people that were organizing poetry slams don’t believe in the craft.
“There are not a lot of roses and too many weeds,” Mabrey said. “I’ve reached my tipping point.”
He compared Phoenix to Beverly Hills, saying people want to know poetry is here but they don’t necessarily want to use it.
“If people need (poetry), it will come back,” Mabrey said.
Austen Jarboe, a political science junior, recited his first haiku at the show after attending a couple of slams and being inspired to write.
“It was exciting,” Jarboe said.
People have continued to persuade Mabrey to keep the show going because of the large turnout.
“I’m not that stupid,” Mabrey said. “That’s the dance of fat business.”
Max Martinez, a Fair Trade Cafe employee and Phoenix native, said that laws have passed preventing any type of culture from sprouting in downtown because it takes a lot of money away from big business such as the Phoenix Art Museum.
Martinez said First Fridays, a monthly event which introduces local artists, aren’t as big as they used to be because of laws preventing people from setting up in certain places.
Faith Bencomo, a poet and regular at the show, said she was sad that the show had ended.
She had planned on replacing the Black Pearl Poetry Slam with another poetry event that was taking place at the Phoenix Art Museum. However, she learned that event had also ended — even though it was bringing in more than 1,000 people to observe 38 poets.
“Spoken art is not always viewed the same as picture art,” Bencomo said.
Mabrey moved from Ohio to downtown Phoenix two years ago and lived a couple doors down from Fair Trade Cafe. He would walk over to the cafe to perform spoken word and acquired the idea to start the Friday night slam poetry session.
“This show is more than the poems and the people,” Mabrey said. “It doesn’t end when the show stops. It goes on in your heart and in your mind.”
Contact the reporter at kendra.yost@asu.edu
