Inventor of poetry slams cooks up New Thing

From Chicago Sun-Times:
You won't actually be served a Chicago red hot at the Poetry Hot Dog Cart in Millennium Park. But those who pay a visit to the cart will be able to order a poem off the menu with two "relishes" on the side -- choices include "gloom," "schmaltz" and "corn" -- to be delivered by a real, live poet. Or, if you're not that picky, you can choose from a list of "daily specials" -- poems the vendor-poets already have written.

The cart, to be parked at a yet-to-be-determined location in Millennium Park the first two weekends in August, is part of "Stirring Things Up In Chicago," a foodcentric series of cultural events going on through October. Marc Kelly Smith, a Chicago poet raised in Avalon Park on the Southeast Side, put together the poetry events at the urging of Lois Weisberg, the city's cultural affairs commissioner. Besides acting as the "barker" who will draw people to the hot dog cart, Smith -- founder of the poetry slam in the 1980s -- also will host "food slams" at venues around the city.

"It's not just that people know food and eat food. It's that things in people's lives go on that are related somehow to food," said Smith, 55. An original Smith poem, titled "Deep Dish Chicago," will be widely circulated throughout the city via another unlikely vehicle -- a pizza box. The week of Aug. 7, Lou Malnati's will slip a copy of Smith's poem into every box of its delivered and carryout pies. The pizzeria did this in June and July, too. Whether customers have noticed the poems is questionable, says Bernie Dunn, general manager at the Lou Malnati's. "I think it's great what we're doing. But it's hard. People get so much stuff. They get it at home. A lot of it gets discarded," Dunn said. Smith doesn't take it personally. "My kid bought three pizzas, and he tossed [the poem] every time," he said.