in the 1980s, spoken-word poetry competitions, often with elimination rounds, emerged and were labelled "poetry slams". american poet marc smith is credited with starting the poetry slam in november 1984. in 1990, the first national poetry slam took place in fort mason, san francisco. the poetry slam movement reached a wider audience following russell simmons' "def poetry", which was aired on hbo between 2002 and 2007. the poets associated with the buffalo readings were active early in the 21st century.