Spoken Word - History

History

Spoken word poetry originated from the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance and blues music.

Modern day spoken word poetry became popular in the underground African-American community in the 1960s with the Last Poets. The Last Poets was a poetry and political music group that was born out of the African-American Civil Rights movement.

Spoken word poetry came more towards the mainstream in popularity a short time later when Gil Scott Heron released his spoken word poem The Revolution Will Not Be Televised on the album, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox in 1970.

In the late 1970s Los Angeles poet Wanda Coleman brought modern spoken word poetry into written form with the release of her poetry collection, Mad Dog, Black Lady in 1979 on Black Sparrow Press.

Spoken Word was adopted by college circles in the early 1980s to describe a new wave of performing arts that was birthed during Postmodern Art Movement.

Many artists and poets have not published any of their works in book forms. Some use video and audio recording, the means used exclusively by Hedwig Gorski, who rejected what she called the "dull-drums" of book publishing in the 1980s. Spalding Gray's film Swimming to Cambodia is a well-known example of spoken word, with Gray siting at a desk, talking about his experiences during the filming of The Killing Fields. Nevertheless, spoken word today is part of the oral culture movement spreading literary expression that includes all minorities and women, unlike the domination by the white male community as was case with the Beats in the 1960s.

The Nuyorican Poets Café on New York’s Lower Eastside was founded in 1973 and is one of the oldest American venues for presenting spoken word poetry. The Nuyorican Poets Café in 1989 held the first documented poetry slam.

On the West Coast Da Poetry Lounge and The World Stage are two of the oldest venues for spoken word poetry. The World Stage presenting the more literary side of the spoken word tradition and Da Poetry Lounge embracing the more performance side of spoken word tradition.

The Nuyorican Poets Café and Da Poetry Lounge have a close association with the poetry slam movement which was popularized by Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Lounge with both main hosts Bob Holman and Shihan apprearing several times on the show.