Spoken Word Blog

Today I am happy to tell you about Beats45.com, which provides royalty free hip hop and R&B beats and sample CDs.

They use a decade of professional experience to build quality beats for others in the audio industry. Since the beats are royalty free, that means you can use them in your performances and products without having to keep paying money over and over. This is important for an artist or producer trying to come up with the next big hit.

In addition to the $5 beats, Beats45.com also offers free downloads, a MySpace page, and an up-coming eBay store.

If you are working on songs or interested in it, go check out Beats45.com to get quality beats for your songs and other audio-work.

Today, I received a message from someone asking how to learn about spoken word and performance poetry, namely how to do it well. I want to use this blog post to offer general information to anyone who wants to learn how to do performance poetry or spoken word. This applies to complete beginners looking to get involved in the spoken word scene, as well as artists looking to improve their skills.

Many people like to use workshops and classes to learn spoken word or to improve their abilities. You can find local workshops by looking on craigslist or posting a free ad. You can also look at other local classified ads or use a search engine. Colleges often have classes and groups about spoken word and performance poetry, so students can enroll in those. In addition to workshops and classes specifically for spoken word artists and performance poets, you can use related workshops and classes to improve your skills, such as public speaking classes, general poetry workshops, and stage performance classes.

Unfortunately, workshops and classes can cost a lot. You can use other methods to learn spoken word and performance poetry or improve your skills.

First, introduce yourself more to the spoken word and performance poetry scene. Go to local shows, and watch and listen to video and audio recordings of spoken word performances. Even on websites such as YouTube you can find a bunch of spoken word videos and such. If you don’t mind the cost, you can purchase CDs and DVDs of spoken word and performance poetry. For example, I personally have all the DVDs of Russel Simmons Def Poetry.

Also, simply performing for friends, family and peers can help a lot. Not only does practice make perfect, but also your audience can give you feedback and constructive criticism. Similarly, you can record yourself performing your work and share it with others online, and ask for feedback. I’ll gladly publish an audio or video recording of you performing, for example.

Additionally, there are instructional books and other books about spoken word and performance poetry. Because spoken word involved speech and not merely text, a mute book can not fully teach it. It can help, though. One search on Amazon showed me this book: Wham! Its a Poetry Jam: Discovering Performance Poetry

I hope this blog post has helped anyone considering learning more about spoken word and performance poetry. If you have any questions, please ask them, which you can do with the comment function.

Rebekah from Blogging for a Good Book recently made a post about The Poetry Lounge, a short film about spoken word. I have not watched the movie yet, but I intend to. From her description, it would work well as a video for a school class.

She also mentions the book The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip-hop, and the Poetry of a New Generation.

What do you think?

If you or someone you know is organizing a spoken word or performance poetry event, tell me. SpokenWordArt.com would love to report on your event. We can post about it prior to the event. Then, we can review the event and write a report–assuming a representative of SpokenWordArt.com can go to the event.

I’ll try to see the event myself, but if I can’t go then I’ll try to send someone in my place.

This is a great way to get some extra hype and exposure for your spoken word event. You can use the comment function to tell me about any events.

When I had HBO, I use to watch Real Time with Bill Maher every week during the season. I don’t have HBO anymore, but I saw a 9 minute clip from a recent episode. In the clip Mos Def, host of Def Poetry, along with Cornell West discuss the “Jena 6″ incident.

I like that Bill Maher and his show’s guests can have open discussions about controversial issues. Discussion helps people share ideas and express themselves, which also helps us all get a better pool of information and views to make our judgments.

In regards to the “Jena 6″ incident, it appalls me. The blatant racism makes me sick. For example, the all-white jury agreed with the prosecutions outrageous claim that a tennis show constitutes a “deadly weapon,” which thus makes a simple kick “assault with a deadly weapon.”

For more on the incident, mostly ignored by corporate America’s mainstream media, you can go to Wikipedia’s Jena Six article.

What do you think? Do you know of any good spoken word poems about the incident?

You can discuss poetry and spoken word at the Poetry & Music Forum at OnlineBookClub.org. It’s completely free. Additionally, the website has other forums too.

I want SpokenWordArt.com to be the best website about spoken word and performance poetry. I want to make it the best it possibly can be.

You know what you want better than anyone. What features do you want to see on this website? What tools and resources would you like us to have for you?

You can use the comment function to post any suggestions or requests. Please do!

A recent blog post on Youth Media Reporter reported about free workshops starting on September 25th for Brooklyn teens. I include an excerpt:

Urban Word NYC is pleased to announce that Time Warner will sponsor the expansion of its free after-school programs to teens in Brooklyn! This fall, Urban Word NYC will offer its award-winning spoken word, poetry, hip-hop and college-prep workshops at the St. John’s Recreational Center in Crown Heights Brooklyn.

Modeled after Urban Word’s Manhattan programs, workshops will take place three days per week in the fall, winter and spring, providing a safe space for teens to explore, engage and ignite their powerful voices through the written and spoken word. Workshops will be offered free to teens across the five boroughs for the next two years, thanks to Time Warner’s Youth Media and Arts Fund, which supports innovative arts and media programs for young people in New York City.

This sounds like a great opportunity for Brooklyn teenagers. I hope it works out well. What do you think?

In remembrance of 9/11, as today marks the sixth anniversary, I will post a video of a spoken word poem that addresses 9/11 and the aftermath. The following is one of my favorite spoken word poems, so I may have posted about it before. In the following video, Suheir Hammad performs her poem First Writing Since:

I like how she explores both extreme anger and desire for peace and love. I think she really sums up the emotions and issues that surround war and terror. Though, the poem makes me sad more than anything. She communicates so much in it. What do you think?