Spoken Word Blog

I have completed the second step of my plans for this site.

When viewing the artists page, people will be shown only the listings that have an audio and/or video sample. However, viewers can choose whether to view all listings or only view the ones with samples. But by default only the ones with samples will be displayed.

This will be convenient for people who do not want to be overwhelmed with a bunch of text-only listings.

If you notice any errors, please tell me. If you have any suggestions, please post them. Thanks!

In the following video, Somali spoken word artist Abdiraxim performs his poem entitled Land Of Poets:

Despite the long introduction, I like that video a lot. The poet has a great performance style and a points worth hearing. What do you think?

In an earlier post, I explained my plans for this site. The post included a list of features I planned to add shortly.

I have begun adding those features.

Today, I made it so each artist in our directory has their own page. You will notice that now you can click on the name of every artist in our artist directory, which will bring you to a page with just their listings. For example, you can look at the page for Maximus Parthas or the page for Lamont Carey.

If you notice any errors, please tell me about them. If you have any suggestions, please post them. Remember, I want to make this website (SpokenWordArt.com) the best it can be.

I found the following goofy little Christmas poem on YouTube:

While far from the best poem ever, I find it funny in a silly sort of way. Consider me posting it here as my way of wishing you all happy holidays.

In the following video, Khayav recites the poem If by Rudyard Kipling:

I like that poem, and I enjoy hearing it recited. Incidentally, I just found out that it was Ayn Rand’s favorite poem. What do you think?

In the following video, Brenda C. Petrakos performs her poem “Violet’s Bed” at the Amsterdam Café in North Hollywood, CA:

I like poems in a story format like that because you can easily follow the story while also trying to get at the deeper meaning. Brenda Petrakos performs well in this video and her story poem captivated me. What do you think?

I just read an informative blog post about the history of the modern spoken word movement. It also describes spoken word history. It is short and to the point. Check it out and tell me what you think.

If you have any more information about the history of spoken word, please post it here as a comment. Thanks!

I found the following cool product on Amazon today: Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Season 1-4

That’s the entire first four seasons of Def Poetry. You can get it for a lower cost than if you bought each season separately. I would order it, but I already own them all. Also, you can buy the whole set used to save even more money.

If you have watched Def Poetry when it aired on HBO like I did, then you probably want to get this disc set so that you can see the episodes you missed and re-watch the others as many times as you want.

One of the great things I have found about having the discs on hand is that I can show them to house guests every now and then. I have introduced many people to Def Poetry by having the whole thing on DVD.

Considering the holiday season, I want to mention that this 4 season set would make a really great gift for anyone who likes spoken word poetry.

If you have never seen Def Poetry, I highly recommend it. However, if you have not seen it, you probably want to only get season 1 in case you do not like it: Def Poetry - Season 1. If you find that you like season 1, then you can order the rest.

What do you think?

In the following video, Ryan Sarafolean performs a spoken word poem at the Minneapolis Public Library:

During the first minute of his poem, I thought he was just prefacing his poem with a story. I realized it was the actual poem once he started using a lot of metaphors. Anyway, I like the poem. I cannot imagine children so oppressed that they cannot even dream. I hope for better days, when no children will have to suffer from war and poverty. What do you think?

I want to share with you the plans I have for SpokenWordArt.com. I have thought of a lot of features that I want to add to the website. I will probably add them in as short of a timespan as possible, because it is easier to write all the scripts together, since they will have to interact with each other.

First of all, you want to make sure you have taken advantage of the current features. If you are a spoken word artist, you can post a listing in our artist directory.

Now, about the future plans…

Firstly, I plan to make it so that each artist listing will also be displayed on its own webpage, in addition to be listed in the directory. This means that each artist in our directory will have their own profile page.

I also plan to add a feature that will allow viewers to choose to only see artists with an audio or video sample of their work on the artists page. When browsing through so many listings, this will help the viewer not be overwhelmed with short text-only listings from various artists.

I also plan to add a feature that would allow people to post comments on artist profiles. The comments would have to be approved by the artist before they would be displayed publicly on the page.

I also want to add a feature so that fans can register at the website as “fans,” so that membership is not only limited to artists.

After that, I want to create a feature so that users of the website can message each other through the website. This will help ensure that messages are not lost through email.

Finally, I want to create a way for people to list spoken word events automatically. The users can type in the event details, including where and when. Then, there will be a page displaying all the events that have been listed.

What do you think? Please post any suggestions for other features that you want or for how you want these features to work.