speak the word

I’ve been a fan of spoken word for a few years now. For the uninitiated, this is the definition of a spoken word artist:

A spoken word artist is a person who stands on a stage with nothing but his clothes and speaks musically. You do not have to be a specific race. You do not have to change your accent or dress a certain way. You do not have to talk about the same things other spoken word artists talk about. You only need to have something to say, a musical way of saying it, and your precious guts, to be a spoken word artist.

It is a cross between rap and rhyme, lyric and poetry–elements of all, but belonging to neither. To me, spoken word is powerful because of its simplicity and theatricism. There are elements of hip hop in its socially conscious subject matter, but spoken word can be silly, raunchy, heartfelt, or all of the above. And there is the performance element: without a speaker with charisma and presence to breathe life into the language, spoken word is no different from any verse written on a page.

Def Poetry Jam is definitely one of the premier places for spoken word, and it is where the truly gifted perform. Here are two of my most favorite pieces of all time, by the supremely talented Amir Suleiman and Rafael Casal respectively.