In the following video, Kendra Urdang performs her poem, To Every Man Who Never Called Himself a Feminist.
Very powerful poem! It hit me hard when she said that by the end of the poem 2 women will be raped.
For more information about rape and sexual assault, check out the self-defense blog.
What do you think?
Flow Mentalz performs his spoken word poem They call me Drama on Def Poetry:
I like that spoken word poem very much! We all can relate to it in some way, because we all know drama.
What do you think?
The following is a video of Lamont Carey performing his spoken word poem ‘No Child Left Behind’ at A Good Book in Baltimore, Maryland.
I like this spoken word poem. Indeed, the public school system fails to educate the children. We need to educate our own children. What do you think?
Daniel Barbarisi reports on a lecture by Cornel West, a spoken word and rap artist, about Martin Luther King and the state of America:
If the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, Cornel West mused, what would he do, what would he say, what would he love and hate?
“I don’t know exactly what brother Martin would say about present day America. I know it would bring tears to his eyes,” West said.
He wouldn’t like all the “salacious bodies” moving on the Black Entertainment Channel, and he’d deplore the jewelry, and especially the chains, that young black men wear.
But more importantly, he would weep at a nation where more than 20 percent of its children grow up in poverty, where they are educated in “dilapidated schools in these chocolate cities, and where there is lack of great leadership in the black community to push for this change.”
West, a Princeton professor, author, and now also a rap artist, came to Brown yesterday as the 11th Martin Luther King lecturer, part of a group that has included former New York City Mayor David Dinkins and author and Department of Justice Civil Rights Division head Lani Guinier.
West also took questions, and promoted his upcoming spoken-word rap album.
I wish Martin Luther King still lived today. Nonetheless, we can still hold his values, take his message, and carry out his plan.
What do you think?
Jabari Asim recently talked with a member of The Last Poets:
Back in the day, before rap and poetry slams, the Last Poets were the reigning princes of African-American performance poetry. They developed a loyal following with their forceful performance style, irresistible beats, and lyrics that were bracing, witty and informed all at once. Most critics credit the group with pioneering many of the styles that have come to be associated with rap.
The group, usually a trio or quartet, has involved seven men during its 38-year history. Abiodun Oyewole, one of the three original members, still performs with longtime co-members Umar Bin Hassan and Don “Babatunde” Eaton. I spoke to him as the men prepared to appear at a Martin Luther King Jr. program sponsored by Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
I asked Oyewole if it was fair to refer to his group as rap pioneers. Were there fundamental differences, I wondered, between what his group did in the ’60s and ’70s and what rap groups were doing today?
“It’s fair in the sense that we undressed the language,” he said. “We took the clothes off the words and gave them to you raw. We did it without permission. We were living in a raw world. The Last Poets did excite the street concept of poetry because we took it off the page and were in your face.”
But Oyewole finds the political aspect of his group’s work missing from much of the rap he hears. To him it seems as if they kept the rawness but lost the relevance. “It’s often without reference to any kind of political position. It’s OK to be raw and in your face if you’re going someplace. If we’re just hanging out on a scary-go-round, that’s not productive.”
Mainstream rap (and all mainstream music for that matter) mostly consists of empty, superficial, and childish non-sense. However, the spoken word movement still thrives today, and has the same deep, political, and poetic messages.
What do you think?
LaToya Thompson recently wrote about a poetry slam in Springfield
About 20 Springfield teenagers will experience a life’s first together — a poetry slam.
For a two-week period the group, facilitated by Project Jericho, mentally sweated through a poetry boot camp.
All the writing and performance coaching will lead to a competition —a poetry slam — at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Springfield Museum of Art.
Poetry slam is a combination of written poetry performed through verbal and physical expression.
Project Jericho provides performing arts opportunities to at-risk youth and their families.
The teens will select two poems to read in the competition and will be judged on their poem’s content and delivery on a scale of zero to 10.
Fred Kirchner, a children’s librarian for Dayton Metro Library and area poet, said the kids have come through for each other by pushing one another to perform.
Project Jericho Specialist Sarah Leavens said the workshop has been a tool, not only to introduce the teens to an untapped talent but also to teach them a way of expressing themselves positively.
Tony Smyder said he normally isn’t shy when it comes to the spotlight, but spoken word presented a challenge for him.
“It gives me the courage to do stuff I wouldn’t normally do,” the 15-year-old rapper said. He said he’s glad to have an outlet to get problems and circumstances off his chest.
The group wrote poetry about various topics — relationships, violence, hope, abuse and acceptance.
Read entire Springfield News-Sun article by LaToya Thompson.
Poetry slams and poetry workshops such as those definitely helps kids express themselves and deal with public speaking. Learning to perform poetry and spoken word gives the participants a handy tool for life, and they have fun doing it.
What do you think?