What is Poetry Slam? What is spoken word? What are the varied and workable styles used in reciting poetry to an audience? Read on for 20 examples and commentary.
What is Poetry Slam?
Heres a short clip to explain what Slamming is all about.
Steve Connell:
Take note of the gestures he uses and how they puntuate and elaborate on what he is saying. Also listen to the cadence of his speech patterns. Where does he drop the pauses between his sentences so they run on top of each other? Does the the anticipation of the next inhalation/gasp work? How does his tempo help, hurt or hinder the performance?
Joaquin:
This is the first of three, poems by English teachers, but each of their styles and point of views are unique.
Joaquin’s approach is to change his voice and speek pattern for each of the personas he’s speaking through. Pay attention to the quality of voices he is using. Changing your voice well can really make your poem more interesting to your audience. Changing your voice poorly or inconsistantly will make you sounds like a rank amature. Seriously, be good at this or don't do it.
Pay attention to how and where he switches his tempo.
Suheir Hammad:
Suheir is not a particularly animated poet, but she gives her words life with by letting her excellent writing do the talking. The quality of her voice is great. This performance is a great example as how to read a poem in front of an audience.
Gemini:
Pay attention to the words he places emphasis on and how short silent pauses (pacing) accentuate and reify what that word means in its context. You do not have to jam as many words as possible into your 3 to 5 minutes of stage time.
Patricia Smith:
Patricia is a force and veteran performance poet. Her volume in combination with pitch and well placed punctuating gestures make for a moving performance (even beside the content and quality of her poem).
Denizen Cane:
Denizen blends the spoken with the sung word. His cadence is rhythmical and reminiscent of reggae. Listen for when he closes a sentence by accenting the last word with his pitch.
Ani DiFranco:
Life long activist, revolutionary, singer-song writer Ani DiFranco has A spesific texture, timbre, and gymnastic quality to her voice… pulling her tempo back and forth.
She is an example of using what you already have. We all have unique voices - explore all of its facets and don't try to be something you're not. Often your own unique voice with all its idiosyncrasies can be tuned to serve you very well.
Daniel Beatty:
Daniel articulates his poem about the duality within himself by clearly establishing two different voices, postures, and gesture systems.
Al Letson:
This poem is all about movement so the performance is all about gesture. His body is completely in sync with his tempo-rhythmic delivery. Break out your pens.
Georgia Me:
Tamika is a wonderful person who I’ve had the sincere pleasure to meet. Listen and see what you can pick up about her style.
Kanye West:
The first portion of this is a freestyle. Listen for the beat behind the words.
Rafael Casal:
The poet captures the moment of unexpected fatherhood as thoughts, feelings and emotions rush at him… manifesting that with his sprinting tempo.
Taylor Mali:
Taylor Mali is an experienced, veteran and professional performance poet. Listen and learn. He can (and does) voice overs, narrations of book and commercials. He is a master of his own voice and says every sentence in a particular way for a particular purpose.
Saul Williams:
This is filmed terribly. Just listen to it. Saul was one of the first to sucessfully bring the hip hop element into the poetry slam genre.
Floetry:
This is a beautiful example of a musical duo poem.
Marty McConnell:
Passion is what we seek to express when we write. Bring it to the stage after some practice… and it’ll go a little Something like this.
Heru Ptah:
I love this poem.
Sekou the Misfit:
Pay attention to the subtle anxiety in his voice and his body near the beginning of the poem, that is the first clue that all of his claims are pure veneer.
Luis Reyer Rivera:
There is a grace, a depth---an ability that only comes with age. All we can hope to do as young poets is learn from their existence.
Listen to the way he uses repetition.
Submitted by Anonymous on Wednesday, November 08, 2006 (02:17:56) (1210 reads)
The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
Re: What makes a great spoken word performance?
(Score: 1 )
by Michael on Wednesday, November 08, 2006 (01:43:48)
I can't answer the question, which at this moment is not important. What is important is to watch these performances and enjoy, become provoked, and pursue.
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