Things

1. Things • Speedy form and poetry presentation last week: you can read and savor the PP in Blackboard! • Don’t forget optional poetry project. • Fiction project due any time. • Tomorrow: Visual Tradition in Poetry (and Option 2 of Poetry Project #2) • Wed: Workshop Mania

2. Poetry Project #2: 10 pts.The Oral Tradition You have your choice of 2 options! Click here for full assignment. • This spoken word tradition has roots that go very far back in Western history. The Beat movement of the 1950s revitalized it for contemporary America, and it has since been going strong with the advent of poetry "slams" in the 1980s. Closely linked to rap and street culture, spoken word poetry tends to be relatively raw, energetic, outward-directed and reliant upon a good stage performance. That is, it may not always hold up especially well on paper, but that is not its intended medium. Spoken word must be delivered live, and the "acting" of the speaker is a big part of the work itself. Poetry slams, when done well, are delirious, energetic, and very interactive—the audience talks, hollers, judges...basically acts as part of the performance itself. • For this option, you should write a poem which is meant to be performed. You'll hand it in with your other chapbook materials, but you will also perform it for the class. Draw on our class viewing of SlamNation or our for a little background on this genre, and try, if you can, to attend a slam in town while you're working on your poem.

3. Spoken Word Poetry The Oral Tradition

4. Hey, Daddy-o This stuff is really old… • Homer 800 BC • Old English poetry 400 AD • Native American 8000 BC to present • The Beats 1950s • Slam Poetry 1980s to present

5. check these out! www.nuyorican.org/ AND www.poetryslam.com/

6. How do slams work?

7. What makes a good spoken-word or slam performance? Listen to Spoken Word selections, plus Beat poems with jazz accompaniment Special Note for April 15th: we’ll do this on April 22nd!!!! Bring a barret, some bongos, a mocaccino…

8. Blurring the line between poetry and theater; performances are like one-person, one-act plays. • Aggressive, clever, sometimes funny rhyme, not in any strict pattern (triple rhymes, internal rhymes, slant rhymes, repeated words, etc. In video, “Lazarus, Lazie, Lazy”). • Projection! Loud broadcast. • Number of unstressed syllables don’t matter, maybe. Success depends on how cleverly you get the four stresses in (rap). • Getting into a groove. • Memorizing the material adds interest. • Mixing genres: insert singing, use accompanying sound, etc. • Ritual presence of performer.

9. Spoken Word Performance Instructions • Perform a spoken piece for the class, roughly 5-10 minutes. This should, ideally, be original work you’ve written yourself. • Practice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! • Project. Proe-JECT. • Feel free to use sound effects, music, special garb. • Pay attention to “Spoken Word Poetry” Power Point, and “What makes a good spoken word performance?” slide. Also heed the audio samples played in class, and tips offered during our discussion. Criteria—Performance should be • Engaging • Inventive • Energetic and/or of adequate intensity • Well-rehearsed • Well-projected, audible • Well-paced