So far this year, I've seen more spoken word than ever before. I've spent the last couple of months going to a few spoken word nights while at university. Some of the results were surprising to say the least, but it also got me thinking about the practice of spoken word in general. I found myself wondering about what the ideal tone of a spoken word night should be, and why I have not attempted performing spoken word myself.
The spoken word nights I've been to so far have displayed varying degrees of seriousness and comedy. Quite often they start with a performance poet reciting purely comedic poems, only to undercut that when the next poet performs a poem containing social commentary. The acts which follow tend to be somewhere in the middle, performing serious poems about important issues with a tinge of comedy thrown in for effect. I noticed this last year when I saw Kevin P. Gilday at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but having seen more spoken word since then, it seems that the blending of comedy and seriousness is a common trend.
I am not too fond of serious poetry. Although I recognise its significance and why such poetry is a valuable part of literature, I hardly ever write it. I suppose I have never been too serious. As I result, when I listen to poetry at spoken word nights dealing with subjects such as problems in the Middle East or the complications of human relationships, I tend to count the minutes until the next comedic poet comes on. It's not that I don't see merit in serious poetry; it's just that I find it hard to take serious poetry all that seriously.
That said, most of the spoken word artists I've seen are great. They certainly have a way with words, and they also have a way of delivering poems in interesting ways. Watching them perform onstage has gotten me thinking about why I've never attempting performing spoken word myself. The main reason is that I used to hardly venture out of the independent house I live in at university, although I've been making efforts to be more outgoing in recent months. The other reason is that I don't feel the poetry I write is suited to the environment of spoken word.
Anyone who's been reading this blog on a regular basis (not suggesting there are many), will know that I write poems in the hope that they will be read. There is a difference between writing poems for a reading audience and writing poems for a live audience. Spoken word is as much about the performance of the artist as it is about the words they're reading. They have to engage the audience with their poetry while adopting a stage persona. With written poetry you can concentrate on the more technical things such as stanza length, line breaks and (especially in my case), narrative structure. You tend to be more concerned about what an individual reader will take from it, rather than engaging a live audience.
As it stands, I've been invited to two spoken word nights happening in the next week. If I was in charge of deciding the tone of these events, I would probably try to inject more fun into them. As I've already said, that's not to the detriment of the serious performance poets, but if spoken word nights were as fun as they are enlightening, I would definitely enjoy them more. Some performance poets handle both fun and seriousness with impeccable skill, and it would be great if spoken word nights had more of this, and if the artists and the audience had more fun in the process. It could be that these next two events will exceed my expectations, and I look forward to them.
In the meantime, the latest episode of Silent Animal Poetry is online and available for your viewing pleasure at this link: http://youtu.be/8foYQc4QdwY. Some new poetry will be released with in the coming week, along with an announcement about that First World War project I've been mentioning a lot. See you all soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment