This week, a familiar face in the Cedar Falls poetry scene will be seen in a new light.

Adam Weightman, a University of Northern Iowa master's candidate in the communications department, will be taking the stage Friday as emcee of the already popular monthly poetry slam at Cup of Joe, 102 Main Street, Cedar Falls. He has taken on this promotion after competing many times himself.

Slam, a competitive poetry event that ranks poets according to the applause of the audience, is a lively art that requires an engaging emcee to provide segues between intense, and often dissimilar acts. Former Cup of Joe slam emcee Shereena Honary, who left for New York City this summer, said Weightman is an excellent candidate to fill that role.

"I picked Adam to take over the slam because of his energy and talent in slamming," she explained. "I felt he did the best job in conveying the true nature of a poetry slam to the audience and that was ultimately my goal -- to bring that kind of culture to Cedar Falls. Plus, he is a genuinely great guy to whom people can relate. People enjoy his company."

Because of the intensity and competitiveness of slam poetry, an emcee needs to be congenial and entertaining. Weightman feels ready for the challenge.

"I like competition," he admits, "but that's not what I choose to focus on. I like to focus on having fun instead."

But make no mistake, Weightman, who hails from Los Angeles, is not without qualifications. As a member of the Illinois State University speech team, he helped the squad win the 2005 American Forensics Association annual competition. Weightman also finished fourth at the National Forensics Association poetry competition that year.

Still, those experiences have not caused him to forget his initial goal of introducing more people to the joys of slam poetry.

"Slam is really educational ï½," said Weightman, who even uses the medium as an adjunct oral communication professor at UNI. "It's a way to get people involved -- to help people to learn and understand in a different way. It's also very hands-on and physical."

Academics is not his only motivation, however.

"When people from different parts of the community come together to do stuff like slam, you get people who are speaking about their lives and their impressions and that creates a larger cultural narrative," Weightman said. "I definitely think that slam helps the democracy, because it's community speech."

As evidence of his interest in community involvement, Weightman helped to recruit Courtney Wright, a performance studies student and past national slam champion, to UNI. Along with his assistance in the Cup of Joe poetry slam, Wright will be heading the Cedar Falls branch of the Greenhouse Poetry Project, an organization he says is "dedicated to developing and improving the writing, performance, communication, and leadership skills of all the world's people." Wright also hopes to start youth speech and poetry competitions in the area.

Weightman's association with Wright is friendly but it is also deliberate, as are his friendships with many of the slam participants and with SaYes2Poetry, the organization that runs slams at The Cellar in Waterloo.

"Networking is important to me. If you're going to build something you need your base -- your network," said Weightman, who hopes to enhance the already blooming poetry community in Cedar Falls. "I think it's going to get bigger and badder and more crowded in here."

Contact Aaron McNally at newsroom@wcfcourier.com.