[New-Poetry] Spoken Word Redux

[David Graham]

New book recommendation--

I've been looking at the anthology *The Spoken Word Revolution  
Redux*, which is a sequel to *The Spoken Word Revolution* of a couple  
years back, both edited by Mark Eleveld.  From Sourcebooks.  To my  
mind, it's an even better collection than the first one.

There are by now a number of anthologies and texts that cover  
performance/slam/spoken word poetry, some more dross-heavy than  
others.  I think this is one of the better ones.  Like the earlier  
book, this sequel makes an effort at bridge-building between the  
"academic" and the "street" scenes by including pieces by more  
mainstream academic figures (Ted Kooser, Billy Collins, Robert  
Creeley, e.g.) as well as brief essays about various issues.   
Particularly strong essays by James Fenton ("The Raised Voice of  
Poetry") and Henry Taylor ("Read by the Author:  Some Notes on Poetry  
in Performance").  I like it that the editor doesn't adopt an  
adversarial stance toward tradition or indulge in the usual mindless  
professor-bashing.  New features in the latest book include a section  
of international poems, a little mini-symposium/tribute to Creeley,  
and more attention to the music/poetry nexus.

Like the first book, this one also comes with a CD, including poets  
reading as well as commentary on the scene.  I wish it came with 5  
CDs--too many of the pieces are merely excerpted, and my relish for  
Marc Smith's commentary is not infinite--but it's a good start,  
anyway.  All anthologies these days should come with CDs, in my  
opinion, particularly of poems performed live rather than in the studio.



========================================
David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu

Home Page:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/About%20Me.html

Poetry Library:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html
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