They slammed during the twenty-minute trip. They started leaving for other cars. Of course, it was a one-time joke. Boston's own serious success spawned other venues around New England. By December 1993, there were five poetry slams in Massachusetts alone, one in Rhode Island, and at least three in Connecticut.
Many states still have none.
Both New York and California then had only two, and Illinois only the original, the Green Mill. Yet the numbers don't really say where the slam style has spread, nor do they answer for other styles. Thus there is the suspicion, sometimes confirmed among slammers who've traveled, that poetry in all its forms is becoming a much larger part of life across North America. The word 'slam' that we hear now is common in the media. You can hear it on the radio and read it in a magazine on an airplane.