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Jacqueline pizano

Senior project

4/18/19

Is spoken word positive for students

For my senior project i decided to make an event where students had the choice of

making a poem covering social , political and economical issues and performing them at school

in front of an audience, i choose to do this for my senior project because student often are faced

with ageism and told they are too young to be discussing such topics , so i wanted students and

myself to be civically engaged but while practicing on public speaking is many students have

trouble doing. throughout this essay will be discussing the research i found that proves that

spoken word can be introduced into a school setting and actually be a good thing for students.

For the first part i'll be discussing spoken word in itself such as its history , how its used , how it

can be used to create a movement , and what necessarily it is. Spoken word is writing that is

meant to be read out loud. Some examples of spoken word you might be familiar with are

stories, poems, monologues, slam poetry, rap and even stand-up comedy.Spoken word is a

performance art that is word-based. It is an oral art that focuses on the aesthetics of word play

such as intonation and voice inflection. Although spoken word can include any kind of poetry

read aloud, it is different from written poetry in that how it sounds is often one of the main

components. Unlike written poetry it has less to do with physical on the page aesthetics and more

to do with phonaesthetics, or the aesthetics of sound. So when writing a poem you'd be

performing for a spoken word event you listen to the sounds of the words and how it all flows

together. Spoken word I believe was originated in africa and people would perform :hunting
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poetry, while elegiac and panegyric court poetry were developed extensively throughout the

history of the empires of the Nile, Niger and Volta river valleys.

In African culture, performance poetry is a part of theatrics, which was present in all

aspects of pre-colonial African life and whose theatrical ceremonies had many different

functions: political, educative, spiritual and entertainment. Poetics were an element of theatrical

performances of local oral artists, linguists and historians, accompanied by local instruments of

the people ; such as the kora, the xalam, the mbira and the djembe drum.

Spoken word is found everywhere in multiple movements and still is used as a device of

protest and an effective way of discussing issues in a short and understandable way.Spoken-word

poetry originated from the poetry of “the Harlem Renaissance,blues, and the Beat Generation of

1960s. Spoken word in African American culture drew on a rich literary and musical heritage.

Langston Hughes and writers of the Harlem Renaissance were inspired by the feelings of the

blues and spirituals, hip-hop, and slam poetry artists were inspired by poets such as Hughes in

their word stylings.The Civil Rights Movement also influenced spoken word. Notable speeches

such as Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream", Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?", and

Booker T. Washington's "Cast Down Your Buckets" incorporated elements of oration that

influenced the spoken word movement within the African-American community.The Last Poets

was a poetry and political music group formed during the 1960s that was born out of the Civil

Rights Movement and helped increase the popularity of spoken word within African-American

culture Spoken word poetry entered into wider American culture following the release of Gil

Scott-Heron spoken-word poem "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" on the album Small

Talk at 125th and Lenox in 1970.” like stated earlier spoken-word poetry is typically used as a

device to protest used to convey important or controversial messages to society. Such messages
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often include topics such as: racial inequality, sexual assault and/or rape culture, anti-bullying

messages, body positive campaigns, and LGBTQ and many more. Other than discussing

controversial messages through spoken word, spoken word can also be used to show your

advocacy for those certain topics above that you'd be giving awareness to these issues many

people are facing. That is the reason most spoken word is political its easy and it forms a

connection with you and your audience when discussing issues you've either faced or seen.

Spoken word has power connected to it , it could pave a way , heal or harm. The reason spoken

word is powerful is because usually when performing you have intention from the topic you

choice to the way you choose to perform it , its making a statement and that's what everyone

wants.

Spoken word is a combination of arts education and youth development practices, civic

engagement strategies, and high quality artistic presentation, by using spoken word in a sense

you are creating a safe spaces that challenge young people to find, develop, publicly present, and

apply their voices as creators of societal change. It challenges them because young people want

change and overall this generation of students are more politically involved than any in the past

few years so spoken word is a positive thing to use with young people because its involving

education and the students would be learning and the students would be continuously learning

new things and it would feel boring because students would be writing new poems all the time

and the students would have creative control so in conclusion students should be learning about

spoken word in school and how it can be used in a civic form.

Sources

https://www.write-out-loud.com/ten-tips-on-using-positive-power-of-the-spoken-word.html
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https://www.powerpoetry.org/actions/5-tips-spoken-word

https://youthspeaks.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoken_word