The Spoken Word Revolution - With CD: Slam, Hip Hop & the Poetry of a New Generation

Hear the Poetry Revolution

We?re about to take you off the road you expected to be on when you heard the word ?poetry.? Sandburg, Kerouac, Whitman, and Millay were all radicals in their early days. They outraged the status quo. The poets you?ll experience in this book and audio CD travel on that same track. The Spoken Word Revolution is a continuation and rebirth of the oral tradition in our

country, and in countries around the world, where the power of poetry performed out loud compels an audience to listen.

The Spoken Word Revolution brings to life the written and performed works of more than 40 of the most influential slam, hip hop, performance art and contemporary poets in the world today. This defining collection of spoken word poetry captures today's electrifying words and voices, in text and immediately live on one audio CD.

Hear the innovative poetry styles of:

--Slam

--Nuyorican

--Performance art

--Taos

--Youth poetry

--Hip hop

Includes Poems by:

--Sherman Alexie

-- Billy Collins

--Regie Gibson

--Celena Glenn

--Edward Hirsch

--Jean Howard

--Taylor Mali

--Viggo Mortensen

--Beau Sia

--Patricia Smith

--Saul Williams

About the Author

Mark Eleveld is copublisher at EM Press and a board member of the Midland Authors Society in Chicago. He is a freelance writer and book reviewer for the Kankakee Daily Journal in Illinois. Mark Eleveld did press relations for poet Marc Smith from 1993 to 1996. He teaches English at Joliet West High School and is a philosophy instructor at the University of St. Francis in Illinois. He lives in Joliet, Illinois.

Few people can say that they single-handedly created a whole new art form. Marc Smith is one of those people. Since Marc began the Poetry Slam in 1987, competitive performance poetry has spread throughout the world. Through his creation of the Uptown Poetry Slam and many poetry organizations and ensembles such as the Pong Unit One, the Bob Shakespeare Band, Neutral Turf's Chicago Poetry Festival and the Poetic Theatre Project, Marc has influenced and inspired poets to shake off the notion that poetry belongs only to the high-minded. Author of Crowdpleasers, Marc has performed poetry to more than one hundred thousand people during his sixteen-year-strong weekly show at the Green Mill Lounge in Chicago. He lives in Chicago.