Grand 'slammer'

BY Misha Davenport - Chicago Sun Times

Mayda del Valle has a way with words.

Sometimes they seem to flutter and roll off her lips. Other times they burst forth like a comet streaking across a nighttime sky.

Born and raised on the Southwest Side of Chicago, the 25-year-old native returns home tonight for the first of eight performances of "Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam" at the Shubert Theatre, where she shares the stage with several other poets.

Freed from the conventions of meter and rhyme, del Valle's free-form poetry is sometime personal, sometimes angry, but always passionate and energetic.

She avoids alienating the audience, she says, because she isn't out to change anyone's opinions. "It's not about trying to make you think what I think," she says. "I just want you to hear what I think."

Audiences have embraced the show, and one critic went so far as to say del Valle was a powderkeg of energy.

While the poet isn't sure where she gets her boundless energy, her mother, Carmen, says she's always had it.

"When she was a child, I was always chasing after her," 60-year-old Carmen del Valle says with a chuckle. "The energy is there because it comes from her heart."

Though she says Mayda was a talker from an early age, she never thought it would lead her daughter to a career in the arts.

"With the way she would talk, I thought she was going to go into politics," Carmen del Valle says.

Mayda credits her passion for writing to the journal she had to keep while attending Maria, an all-girl's Catholic school on the South Side.

"That's where I got my start. A teacher named Mrs. Kelly made us keep a journal," del Valle says.

Del Valle filled the pages with monologues and skits -- not poetry. The poems would come later, after she left Chicago to attend the prestigious Williams College in Massachusetts before she graduated and finally settled in New York.

Del Valle's older sister and brother have stable jobs as Chicago police officers, but del Valle had aspirations of being an artist.

"No parent wants to hear, 'Hey, Mom and Dad: I've got my college degree and now I'm going to be an artist,' " del Valle says.

Carmen del Valle says she and her husband always tried to be supportive of their daughter.

"When she decided to move to New York after college, Papa was resistant, but I was hoping doors would open for her."

And open they did. In 2001 she performed with the New York team at the National Poetry Slam. The team placed third, but del Valle's solo performance placed first. She was the youngest person and the first Latina to win the award.

Of course, the irony is, poetry slams -- events where poets compete against each other with a volunteer pulled from the audience judging the competition -- actually started in Chicago at the Green Mill. Del Valle wasn't exposed to them, however, until she moved to New York.

"I've actually never been the Green Mill," del Valle says. "Unfortunately, I didn't start slamming until college."

It was at the 2001 National Slam she first came to the attention of Russell Simmons, who was scouting for talent for an HBO poetry special. The special led to her being cast on Broadway.

"I find the success she's had very surprising," Carmen del Valle says. "The career she chose is hard, especially for a Hispanic woman."

Still, if there is one thing she says she has taught her children, it's try and you can succeed. The del Valles witnessed firsthand their daughter's success when they attended the Broadway opening of the "Def Poetry Jam" show.

"I started crying from the beginning of the show until the end," Carmen del Valle says. "You struggle to raise your kids and when something like this happens, it's great."

Carmen del Valle says the entire family will be there tonight to support Mayda.

"She was always volunteering to the community and giving herself to friends. She deserves everything she's getting," Carmen del Valle says.

While Mayda says she's thrilled to be performing in front of a hometown crowd, she's really looking forward to a stuffed pizza from her favorite deep-dish joint, Palermo's.

"I'm probably going to get kicked out of New York for saying this, but you can't get good pizza in New York."