spoken word
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Listening to Poets
Should poetry be heard and not seen? In most, though not all, historic literary traditions, verse is distinguished from prose by the fact that the lines or stanzas are identified as such by recurrent patterns of sound (quantity, accent, rhyme,…
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People Talk
In a new history of the evolution of language, Matthew Battles focuses on humans’ relationship with writing. For Slate, John H. McWhorter argues that Battles’s distinction between the written and spoken word misunderstands how we use the Internet: Much of…
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The Rumpus Interview with Danez Smith
Poet Danez Smith discusses advocacy, translating spoken poetry for the page, and his new collection [Insert] Boy.
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Envision a Library Full of Blood
From Portland, Oregon, Black Cake Records is compiling an audio archive of contemporary poets reading their work. As they put it, “We envision a library full of blood. We want the very best blood, & we want it everywhere.” Check…
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RIP Maggie Estep
Spoken word poet Maggie Estep has passed away. The Los Angeles Times has a wonderful write up of her life and career and how she shaped a whole movement. “In her early work, Estep was a downtown New Yorker who…
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An Interview with Spoken Word Legend Bucky Sinister
“That was my other big misconception. That if I got sober and went to a meeting they’d make me believe in God. Not true.”