Lebron James and Poetry
An Nike Air Max 2016 NPR affiliate sponsored a poetry contest about Lebron James. I've heard some gripes about the winning poem's quality, but I must say I am happy just to see poetry in the mainstream. Muhammad Ali wasn't a great poet by literary standards, but he certainly was able to reach an audience with poetry that few, if any, professional life time poets are ever able to achieve. Similarly, even the association of poetry with Lebron James will bring the winner of this poetry contest, a woman named Cystal Booker, perhaps more notoriety and exposure than some of our country's greatest poets.
Personally, I'd rather not comment on the poem's quality because that's not the case here. The fact is, the craft of poetry (and writing in general) is not the life pursuit of most people. Therefore, they shouldn't be held to any literary standards. If they had fun, if they used the art form and smiled, this, in its own way, is every bit as powerful and beautiful as the published poet who spent two months working on and perfecting a single stanza. A businessman who comes home to trim the tree in his yard should not be held to the same standard as a professional landscaper. A woman in a nursing home who paints for cathartic reasons should not be held to the standard of a serious artist. Art, at its core, is creation. For the professional artists of the world, their craft can and does change the world. Below is the NPR transcript for the Lebron James Poetry Contest.
And now updates on two stories you've heard on this program. First, we have a winner in the LeBron James poetry contest. For those of you who missed this, I spoke yesterday with Dan Grech, news director of NPR member station WLRN. The station sponsored a poetry contest to celebrate the star basketball player's move from Cleveland to Miami.
DAN GRECH: We got more than 1,100 entries. And while the majority came obviously from Florida and Ohio, we got entries from 31 states, and we also got entries from Canada.
NORRIS: A lot of entries but only one winner. And the overall winner of the LeBron James Poetry Contest?
NORRIS: 24 year old Miami resident Crystal Booker.
Unidentified Woman: Letting Nike Air Max 2016 go is hard, we know. The King is here, and we've warmed up his seat. Cleveland, go ahead and spit flames. You can't burn up the Heat.
NORRIS: In addition to bragging rights, Crystal wins two tickets to a Miami Heat game and a reading at a local poetry festival. Well Crystal, big ups. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. In 2007 he graduated from Penn Goedkope Nike Air Max State with a dual Criminal Justice/English major. His work has appeared or been reviewed in ESPN, The Huffington Post, Rattle, Sherdog, Cosmo, Teach Magazine, The Australian, Ottawa Arts Review and elsewhere.
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