Spoken word and poetry were regarded similar to storytelling in the 14th century since they both entail the sharing of stories and are typically related with social and cultural activities. Poetry is about toying with words, whereas spoken word is about improvisation. Both forms of art are very popular and many poets and speakers seek to achieve fame through their work.
Poets and storytellers used to be part of a community where they would entertain people with their poems and stories. They would perform for audiences who would invite them to dinner or pay them to recite poems at funerals. Today, spoken word and poetry slams are popular in urban areas where there is an active music scene. Participants create their own events and advertise them on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Some cities that host spoken word and poetry slams include New York City, Chicago, Houston, and San Francisco.
People love hearing stories about other people's adventures and learning things about others' lives. Thus, spoken word and poetry slams serve as a way for artists to reach out to different communities by telling stories about what's going on in these places. Furthermore, participants try to outdo each other by creating more interesting stories or poems that others might want to hear or see.
Spoken word and poetry slams are similar to storytelling in the 14th century because they are two ways people share ideas and information with each other.
A wide term for poetry written for performance. Though some spoken word poetry is published on paper, the genre's roots are in oral traditions and performance. Rap, hip-hop, narrative, drama, and jazz, as well as rock, blues, and folk music, may all be found in spoken word. The poet speaks directly to the audience, often using audio recordings as inspiration or accompaniment.
Spoken word artists write and perform their own material in order to attract an audience. Many musicians who began their careers as spoken word performers have gone on to become known as rappers. Allen Ginsberg, Charles Mingus, and John Coltrane were just a few of the many influential musicians who first gained attention through spoken word performances.
Today, spoken word artists can be any number of different people from anywhere in the world, but most come from the African American community and over half live in Los Angeles. Some famous spoken word artists include Eliza Spalding, Nefertiti Hunt, and Yona Harvey. There are many more poets out there who have not yet received recognition, so stay tuned!
Spoken word essays are similar to rap songs in that they are both composed of lines of poetry that can be varied in tone and content. However, spoken word poems cannot simply rhyme words together - instead, the poet uses inflection, diction, and imagery to create a mood.
For me, spoken word poetry is more powerful than written poetry since it is a word-based poetic performance art. It is an oral tradition that emphasizes the aesthetics of word play, such as tone and vocal inflection. As a form, it tends to be relatively short (often less than 10 minutes), often using a limited set of words (usually 25-50) to create a mood or theme within the poem. Spoken word poets usually use music as background which can either be instrumental or sung.
Spoken word poetry has many roots but some of the most popular today were born in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s: the rap battle, the jazz slam, and the graffiti poetry jam. In the rap battle, two or more rappers would compete by freestyling (raping on a beat without writing any lyrics). The winner was determined by audience vote who could vote by calling out "yeah" for yes or "no" for no. Battle rappers would often trade bars without stopping the beat, so the flow was very important.
Graffiti poetry jams are similar to rap battles in that artists write down a line and another artist writes over it without losing the line. However, instead of voting on who won, participants would choose their favorite writer by tagging his or her work behind theirs.