Spoken Word - in Media

In Media

Before the poetic catalyst of Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam in 2002, musical artists such as The Last Poets, Gil-Scott Heron, The Watts Prophets, and many more, were responsible for infiltrating spoken word into the media. Beginning as early as the 1960s, spoken word became an outlet to promote political frustrations and ambitions, such as civil rights.

Towards the late 1990s, movies and documentaries such as Slam (1998), and SlamNation (1998) were responsible for highlighting the evolution and implementation of spoken word in America’s society. Both films’ mentioned above feature artists such as Saul Williams, muMs da Schemer, Beau Sia, and Jessica Care Moore, who were fluent participants in the New York poetry slam scene, as well as members of the 1996 Nuyorican Poetry Slam Team.

Def Poetry catalyzed Spoken Word’s presence in media along with the help of Brave New Voices (2008), a series focusing on the representation of America’s youth in spoken word. The show was brought about after Def Poetry ceased to exist in 2007, in which HBO picked the series up with the help of Youth Speaks Inc., an organization internationally known for its involvement in inspiring and motivating young poet around the world. Directed by James Kass, the show highlighted the annual poetry slam competition at the Brave New Voices Festival, held by Youth Speaks Inc,. The docu-series didn’t survive long; hence it was more of a feature program.

The yielding death of spoken word’s presence on television, media’s relationship with the genre of poetry has henceforth moved to the web. Poets such as Jefferson Bethke, Kai Davis, Sarah Kay, and others, are using outlets such as YouTube and Vimeo to display to the word their poetic and theatric talents.