A little bit about the spoken word and its influence from Black artists!
Words have power, and poetry has been an art form used to inspire some of the greatest movements in history.
This past February, I was invited to host a Slam Poetry Night for one of The American Library in Paris' monthly Teen Nights! We spent the evening exploring the myriad of ways in which poetry has inspired movements for change, from the Harlem Renaissance in the United States to Negritude in France. Teen writers then had the opportunity to create and perform their own pieces in front of their peers!
It was really cool watching young writers and performers break out of their comfort zones and dabble in a form of poetry that was unfamiliar to them. Because despite slam poetry being popular around the world more today than it was in, say, the 1970s, these kiddos in Paris were still pretty unfamiliar with the art form!
What's up with Slam Poetry?
Slam Poetry, a form of performance poetry that combines the elements of performance, writing, competition, and audience participation, is a cultural weapon.
While often criticized as simplistic or lacking merit, spoken word poetry is a powerful tool of expression and activism, especially for those within the Black community.
I mean, think of all of the great poets like Langston Hughes, Audre Lorde, or Maya Angelou. It's easy to see how their poems translated into movements like the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement in the 1920s.
The Harlem Renaissance later inspired the Negritude Movement in France, as a protest against French colonial rule.
Even later, in the 1960s, activists like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X used elements of performance poetry to communicate their dreams, their ideas, and to galvanize a fight for a better future. Listen to my boi MLK's “I Have a Dream” speech: hear that repetition, wordplay, the focus on phonaesthetics? All that stuff is characterized in spoken word poetry.
In a sense, performance poetry helped lay the groundwork for Black expression! We love to see it. Today, slam poetry is an artistic movement performed and strengthened by communities of all races, in countries from the United States, to Canada, to Europe and Japan. Slam poets continue to influence modern culture, from political and social movements, to art, entertainment, and literature.
During the Poetry Slam event, we listened to performances by Tonya Ingram, Chris Loos, Solli Raphael and Aiya Meilani, who ranged from 12 to 19 years old and spoke on topics from climate change and racism, to coping with ADHD. Out of the four, I'd have to say that Tonya Ingram's performance was my favorite -- her passion, vision, and the fact that I felt seen and heard through her work made her poem really moving for me.
I had teens discuss the impacts each performance had on them as well, analyzing the different tools and techniques used to convey the artist’s chosen message. It was really interesting to see which performances they vibed with the most, and we had an important discussion about the intended audience for each performance.
There were very few Black teens at the event, and I wanted to stress the value of taking up space and power as Black writers and creators (especially when we helped to found a lot of the art culture in the world today).
With these ideas in mind, teens then went to work on their own slam poems. For some, it came more easily, while others found they enjoyed more visual representations of their thoughts, like painting or photography. Either way, I could tell they took something away from diving into a new and challenging method of creativity!
So to you, I say:
Keep creating, dreaming and inspiring – through whatever form of expression you choose!
