POETRY TALK: What “Performance” Means: Spoken Word as Ritual & Invitation to Self With Ariana Brown

Workshop Description: Despite the fact that the oral recitation of poetry is an ancient art form (to paraphrase Saul Williams), spoken word and slam poetry are controversial topics in most rooms, even in rooms full of slam poets (who don’t all agree that that’s what we should be called). In this craft talk, Ariana Brown will trace the lineage of contemporary spoken word and slam poetry, drawing on her decade of experience as a competing poet, coach, and slam festival organizer to interrogate misconceptions about slam, assert the liberatory possibilities of performance, and firmly establish the specificity of spoken word and slam poetry as unique genres with their own poetic forms, rules, rituals, and ontologies.

If performance is a liminal space that provides entry into what Homi K. Bhabha theorizes as “the beyond,” then spoken word and slam poetry have immense potential for activating aliveness, revolutionary possibility, and spiritual connection—that…