Spoken word poetry includes the repetition of one word, line, or idea several times during the performance. This element contains hooks in order to entice the audience.Ī motif is a recurring idea across a literary text. It could be the first line or a group of lines that tells the audience where the story or narrative is heading. The gateway line is the combination of the first few lines of a spoken word that are meant for introducing the subject to the audience. Explore some of the best-known LGBTQ poems. Some of the recurring topics in spoken word poetry are racism, inequality, social justice, corruption, gender, and LGBTQ issues. The main purpose of the spoken word is to give a message to society. It includes the topics that in one way or the other have an impact on the performer or the writer. In 1990, the first National Poetry Slam (a nationwide performance poetry competition) took place in San Francisco. American poet Marc Smith started the poetry slam, designed to move poetry from the intellectual sphere to that of the masses, in Chicago in November 1984. It is one of the oldest venues of the spoken word. In 1973, the Nuyorican Poets Café was founded. The speeches delivered by civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘ I Have a Dream ’ contained the elements of oral tradition and helped the development of the spoken word movement. The Civil Rights Movement also influenced this performative poetry form. According to scholars, the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, Beat Generation, and Last Poets played an important role in the development of the spoken word in the US. The genre developed in the United States in the early 20th-century. Performance poetry has existed in Africa from prehistoric times.
In ancient Greece, the lyrics were similar to modern-day spoken word poetry. The oral poetry tradition has existed in society for several years, through a cycle of listening, practice, and memorization. It contains a number of features of rap, hip-hop, jazz, rock, blues, spirituals, and folk songs. The term “spoken word” or “spoken word poetry” includes all the modern poems that are spoken aloud. Specifically, the genre gained traction in the latter half of the 20th-century. As an art form, it has a history that dates back as early as the classical era. Both are inseparable as the words are written for performance rather than to be read as it is, directly from the book or paper, without emotions and intonation. This spoken-word performance art mainly involves a poetic text meant for reading out loud and a performer. Spoken word poetry is a broad designation for the poetic works which are intended for performance.