Product Description

We’re about to take you off the road you expected to be on when you heard the word “poetry.” Sandburg, Kerouac, Whitman, and Millay were all radicals in their early days. They outraged the status quo. The poets you’ll experience in this book and audio CD travel on that same track. The Spoken Word Revolution is a continuation and rebirth of the oral tradition in our country, and in countries around the world, where the power of poetry performed out loud compels an audience to listen.

The Spoken Word Revolution brings to life the written and performed works of more than 40 of the most influential slam, hip hop, performance art and contemporary poets in the world today.

This defining collection of spoken word poetry captures today’s electrifying words and voices, in text and immediately live on one audio CD.

Hear the innovative poetry styles of:
--Slam
--Nuyorican
--Performance art
--Taos
--Youth poetry
--Hip hop

Includes poems by:
--Sherman Alexie
--Billy Collins
--Regie Gibson
--Celena Glenn
--Edward Hirsch
--Jean Howard
--Taylor Mali
--Viggo Mortensen
--Beau Sia
--Patricia Smith
--Saul Williams

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #573809 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
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.

From AudioFile
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

From Booklist
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

Customer Reviews

Great book, with a great CD
This book showcases a great variety of poetry styles, and includes a CD with about 40 tracks of authors reading their work. I use it to introduce poetry in my high school English classes. These poems evoke a wide range of emotions.

Spin poetry spin
This is really an amazing book. The poets featured are some of the best in the genre, and though annoying to hear on the CD the commentary is really informative and enlightening.

A must have for any poet or musician that has any soul

Great for the classroom
This book was a great resource for teaching poetry. It has good auditory poems but also has great poems in the book and a few good articles for journal reflections. My students loved it and it made poetry easy and exciting for them. I used it with Hip Hop Poetry and the Classroom and basically had a whole unit! A must get for Language Arts teachers.