myspace.com/estebanisnotspecial
What initially began as an extra credit assignment sparked one of junior interactive multimedia major Esteban Martinez’s greatest passions. Manipulating words, conveying emotion with movement, commanding the audience to feel every thought through the rhythm of body and spoken language.
Martinez is a slam poet.Prompted by professor of communication studies Chad Anderson at Brookdale Community College to attend an open mic for extra credit, Martinez discovered a craft that he would dedicate himself to mastering.
"I saw all these types of performances, with all these different types of people, with all these message to say, and I just got hooked. And then I came back week after week after week. Until eventually I couldn’t stop coming back,” Martinez said.
After this initial inspiration in January 2008, he immediately began writing and performing his own poetry. Last year he earned a spot on New Jersey’s poetry slam team LoserSlam, the state’s only slam team that competes at the national level. The four-person team ranked 15 overall and third place in the group piece finals at the National Poetry Competition.
According to Martinez, LoserSlam defies the objective of the typical poetry slam. While competitors in a regular poetry slam aim for the highest score of 10 from the randomly selected audience members turned judges, LoserSlam awards the best poet, who tries to lose, a score of zero. Martinez is competing for a spot on LoserSlam’s national team this year as well, and attends the competitions every Thursday.
In preparation for LoserSlam’s finals to determine who would compete nationally, Martinez adhered to an intense rehearsal schedule.
“I would lock myself in one of the music rooms in the music building, just trying to get that overall message through my words and my body movement and practice for 2 hours a day … practicing how I was saying the words, how my body was like saying the words, everything”
This dedication is evident in the professionalism he achieves in his performances.
Students who catch him perform can expect raw revelations, both serious and comical, delivered with confident sincerity. Despite his forceful presence, Martinez said he still gets nervous before a performance.
“If you’re not nervous, if you don’t get the jitters a little bit before you go on, you’re not doing it right, in my opinion. You have to be a little excited because that is where all the fun is. That is, where, to me at least, I get the most out of it ... having the feelings that I have, having them build up, then unleashing them on the audience,” he said.
In addition to writing poems, Martinez is highly involved on campus. He is currently the president of Japanese club, a leading member of TCNJ Taiko (Japanese drumming), an editor for Lions Television and the president of an upcoming performance club he helped create called Get Loud.
To check out some of Martinez’s poetry visit myspace.com/estebanisnotspecial.
