Call and responsibility: Critical questions for youth spoken word poetry

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2012

Abstract

In this article, Susan Weinstein and Anna West embark on a critical analysis of the maturing field of youth spoken word poetry (YSW). Through a blend of firsthand experience, analysis of YSW-related films and television, and interview data from six years of research, the authors identify specifc dynamics that challenge young poets as they participate in YSW-related activities. Participants discuss the risks of being overly idenfied with the subject matter of the poems they perform, the tendency of some YSW communities to create a "star" system among youth poets, and the implications of the intensified public gaze trained on youth poets by growing media attention to YSW. Weinstein and West argue that risks and tensions are intrinsic to the nature of a deeply social youth arts context but that the field's long-term sustenance depends on all participants' willingness to have honest, ongoing discussions about such challenges. At the front of the room, lit by a giant floodlight, there is a raised stage on which stands a single microphone and a table with a mixing board. Chancelier "Xero" Skidmore, 1 a WordPlay teaching artist, paces the length of the stage with the fervor of a Baptist preacher as the deejay scratches a record behind him: "Coming up to the stage, a veteran member of WordPlay, this school year's host of Fresh Heat. He's hosted two times, so he's seasoned now; he's trained. He's learned to pronounce people's names!" Xero pauses and looks pointedly at a young man standing at the steps flanking the stage. "Everybody make some noise and welcome up our host to the stage-Douglas Evans!" The audience cheers and roars as Douglas, a lanky high school senior, steps onto the stage and raises his arms above his head like a boxer after a winning fight. © by the President and Fellows of Harvard College Douglas calls the first poet up to the stage, a young man named Malcolm. Slightly nervous looking in an oversized blue sweatshirt, Malcolm steps to the microphone and inhales, looking questioningly at the crowd before starting his poem. The grinning kid sitting next to me, a WordPlay veteran known as Big C, leans forward in his seat, nodding as the poem begins to swell and break into the space above us. Before we know it, we are a room of listeners, slow dancing from our chairs, grasping for the uncertainty of places that the poem might take us. When it ends, Malcolm walks down the middle aisle looking relieved as the applause surrounds him from all sides. A friend waiting in the aisle greets him with a hug and shout of delight. Onstage, Douglas tells the audience to keep their applause going while the next poet makes her way to the mic.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Harvard Educational Review

First Page

282

Last Page

302

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS