From the White House: Poetry, Music & the Spoken Word

Spoken Word poetry is a very newly revived form of poetry that has been around since the 90’s. Spoken word is a transformation from an art that began deep in the heart of what was known as the beat poet era of the ‘40s and ‘60s. These were poets who challenged mainstream politics and culture to incite mental revolutions against what I would dub as “idle conformity or assimilation” by government rule; speaking out against oppression, racism, and war. In most cases this was the only form of thought expression albeit a dangerous one regardless of the first amendment that is designed to protect all of our citizens. Spoken word as a genre has always been seen as non-musical selections like famous speeches and orations, but never as a poetic art deserving of it's on section. Even today this still is the case when you walk into a record shop or shop on iTunes you won’t find a legitimate genre for this beautiful and ageless art form. Poets today are working diligently and hard to change this mindset.

Today, Spoken Word poetry is a very general category of poetry that is meant to be both performed and to make a powerful statement. Unlike some of the Beat poets who focused mostly on the corruption of government, economic and social status, and world awareness, Spoken Word has taken a major turn which some like myself observe with a watchful eye. Spoken word has gone from just being a revolting art, but has become more interested in voicing the thoughts of love, life and still that resounding need for revolutionary thought.

All Spoken Word poetry is meant to be read aloud, but not all poetry that is read aloud is Spoken Word. Spoken word has a select few elements that are best known for identifying its class of poetry. I like to call this technique “R3” for Rhythm, Repetition, and Rhyme; these are key element that the artist generally focuses on when performing this style of poetry also called performance poetry.

This is an important part about spoken word poetry, as I often see this as a common mistake amongst new poets who don’t study the art or its history and are elated to lay their vocals down on a nice melodic track and will dub it “Spoken Word”; spoken word poetry is sometimes performed with music, and sometimes without music. If a poet uses background music, it is only to enhance or compliment the poetry and to add a rhythm. The poetry itself is center stage and not the music, this is the case in any good piece of work.

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Tshombe (the Poet)