[New-Poetry] Spoken Word Redux

[jfq at myuw.net]

I wonder if anybody else thinks the slam world's definition of everything that isn't slam or one of the retrospectively claimed fathers of the spoken word as "academic" is just the weirdest kind of ignorance? Any view of poetry that doesn't account for the difference between Ted Kooser and Charles Bernstein is one that seems to be making an important and unfortunate mistake and there's a sad reluctance in the Slam scene to try to correct that. Any one else hang around with a lot of slam poets and have this same impression?

On Wed, 2 Jan 2008, David Graham wrote:

> 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.
>
>
>
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> David Graham
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