The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip-Hop and the Poetry of a New Generation - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1402200374 ISBN 13: 9781402200373

Publisher: Sourcebooks Inc, 2003

Synopsis

Describes how contemporary poetry intended to be spoken out loud has brought about a revitalization of interest in poetry, and presents works by more than forty leading poets.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Eleveld is copublisher at EM Press and a board member of the Midland Authors Society in Chicago. He is a freelance writer and book reviewer for the Kankakee Daily Journal in Illinois. Mark Eleveld did press relations for poet Marc Smith from 1993 to 1996. He teaches English at Joliet West High School and is a philosophy instructor at the University of St. Francis in Illinois. He lives in Joliet, Illinois.

Few people can say that they single-handedly created a whole new art form. Marc Smith is one of those people. Since Marc began the Poetry Slam in 1987, competitive performance poetry has spread throughout the world. Through his creation of the Uptown Poetry Slam and many poetry organizations and ensembles such as the Pong Unit One, the Bob Shakespeare Band, Neutral Turf’s Chicago Poetry Festival and the Poetic Theatre Project, Marc has influenced and inspired poets to shake off the notion that poetry belongs only to the high-minded. Author of Crowdpleasers, Marc has performed poetry to more than one hundred thousand people during his sixteen-year-strong weekly show at the Green Mill Lounge in Chicago. He lives in Chicago.

Reviews

Given that it documents an oral medium, this collection has to be judged mostly by its accompanying CD, with the print text secondary. Narrated with forced garrulousness by slam paterfamilias Mark Smith, the disc begins with an introduction from poet laureate Billy Collins, which gives way to a Quincy Troupe piece (with slick guitar accompaniment), filed under the odd designation "Beat Remnants." That term is also applied to decidedly nonperformance poets Edward Hirsch (who literally phones in a poem with correspondingly poor audio quality) and Marvin Bell, who gives an arid, audience-less studio performance. Things pick up with Slam star Saul Williams's pro performance and 1999 slam champion Roger Bonair-Agard's electrifying and often hilarious alphabetic poem. Of the 50 poets in the book, 20 make it onto the disc-which is 75 minutes long and features 46 cuts, a good third of them interjections from Smith. A few book-only poets, like Thomas Lux, offer essays or commentary rather than poems. Despite this collection's shortcomings, it should be seen as just one take on a various and magisterial art; its appearance heralds spoken word's further entry into the marketplace, a presence that should spread logarithmically over the coming years. Cognoscenti will grumble at this or that choice, and one might hope for a DVD next time, but as an introduction for neophytes, this package more or less gets the job done.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Slam poetry. Hip hop. Performance art. And their bedeviled ancestors--the Beat Poets. All had one thing in common. They all wanted to get poetry out of the lecture halls and into the streets. This text-sized volume and accompanying CD offer some solid examples, context, and a frenetic history of what narrator Marc Smith calls the "democrazation" of poetry. Smith knows of what he speaks, having arranged and participated in the earliest slam performances in Chicago in the late 1980s. These days slam competitions are held worldwide. Reciting a poem out loud is one of our most ancient and honored oral traditions. What those "deep in the scene" want you to know is that standing up, commanding an audience to listen, and artfully baring one's soul is still important--and still works. B.P. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Poetry began as an oral tradition and has circled back to its "live" roots in a movement known as the spoken-word revolution. Thanks to the innovators profiled in this delineating anthology, poetry is now performed, often competitively and quite dramatically, in front of large and enthusiastic audiences in bars and coffeehouses all over the world. Editor Eleveld, a high-school teacher in Joliet, Illinois, cofounder of EM Press, and an eloquent champion of spoken-word poetry, has joined forces with Smith, the acclaimed Chicago-based poet and creator of the poetry slam, to trace the evolution of spoken-word poetry from the Beats to rap, hip-hop, and performance art. The result is a dynamic and clarifying volume chock-full of fresh and informative commentary by the likes of Billy Collins, Marvin Bell, and Jerry Quickley and an exciting array of knock-out poems by Patricia Smith, Tara Betts, Jeff McDaniel, Roger Bonair-Agard, Bob Holman, Regie Gibson, DJ Renegade, Jean Howard, Luis Rodriguez, Saul Williams, and many more. Eleveld and his contributors not only celebrate the verve, artistry, and significance of performance poetry but also anchor it firmly within the splendid, age-old, and life-sustaining universe of poetry, where it so rightfully belongs. And speaking of spoken, an accompanying CD presents poets performing their work. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Sourcebooks Inc
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1402200374
• ISBN 13: 9781402200373
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Smith Marc Kelly