Samuel Teitel

= Division III =

''This article is part of a Climax Div III Issue. The article's author is unkown, although it was incorrectly attributed to Josh Schneider, then Arts &amp; Entertainment Editor, by Henry Parr, who was Managing Editor at the time.

Poetry swept Sam Teitel into a world of performance poetry and travel. His Division III maps his journey through cultural history, emotional exploration, and life on the road. The cover of his Div III looks like an old punk record and opens into 22 poems, essays about spoken word poetry in America, and a cross-country tour journal. Sam’s guiding words? “You should write about what you want to write.”

He first wanted to write about punk rock and break through its romantic myths. “It was about me trying to understand these people as people, as human beings that had their own struggles.” Sam penned persona poems and social studies. One poem explores the perspective of the Hotel Chelsea, where Sex Pistol Sid Vicious allegedly murdered his girlfriend Nancy. Trolling punk history, Sam realized, “There’s a notion of writing all the gory details. A really rigid honesty I’m really interested in.”

Punk’s raw aesthetic inspired Sam to work on more personal poems. He turned down this other road in part for self-preservation. “I went a little crazy,” Sam said, “I was reading about people destroying their lives.” It was time to move past imploding punk personalities. “I feel like poetry and art has kind of always been about the artist’s emotions,” said Sam. He wanted to perform the poetry of his own experiences.

Sam’s regular performances with the Hampshire Slam Collective and Boston’s Cantab Lounge gave him the confidence to take his poetry on the road. This past Jan Term, Sam and Emerson College poet Steve Subrizi featured at open mics across the country. They hit venues all over New England, performed at Chicago’s Green Mill (where slam poetry began), and landed gigs in Denver, Colorado. Sam felt the tour left him with a greater appreciation for life beyond New England. He advises, “Drive across the country and talk to everybody. And go to the really frightening, lonely bars. And don’t ask directions from anyone that isn’t wearing big heavy work boots, overalls and carrying an ax over his shoulder…” Character and stories will emerge. Sam will continue his poetic explorations post-Hampshire. His next stop: The Reader release party in the Prescott Tavern on May 1.