Spoken word writer6/7/2023 ![]() If it is true that thought has meaning only when generated by action upon the world, the subordination of students to teachers becomes impossible. ![]() Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication. The teacher cannot think for her students, nor can she impose her thought on them. The teacher’s thinking is authenticated only by the authenticity of the student’s thinking. only through communication can human life hold meaning. Quite possibly you will learn much more than you will teach. This could not be more true for the field of spoken word poetry. Rather, as popular education demands, we all have experiences and knowledge that we can share to help one another grow. As a student it does not help to assume that you know less than the teacher. As a teacher it does not help to assume that you know more than the student. I strongly believe that the traditional power dynamic between teacher and student is flawed and in need of re-examination. My spoken word pedagogy borrows heavily from Critical Pedagogy and Popular Education models (see glossary of terms below). Motivating and inspiring them to willingly and actively engage in this process of self examination and discovery is the essential task of the poetry coach. Guiding them along this learning/unlearning process is your challenge from day one as a mentor. There are some behaviors and modes of thought that must be unlearned so that the artist, the creative genius inside your student, can enjoy the freedom that all artists need to create. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, from What Is Poetry?įacilitating young students through the process of tapping into emotional connections and expressing themselves can often require unlearning as well as learning. “Words on a page of poetry are a code for human emotions.” This human connection from speaker to audience, based on emotions and lived truths expressed creatively, is the basis for spoken word poetry. Spoken word poetry focuses on the poet and her ideas, stories, feelings, and truths in relation to an audience, more than her use of meter and form on the page in relation to past literature. Poetry is not math, and it is not a foreign language often traditional poetry is taught in a way that turns students off because it seems more formulaic than expressive, more esoteric and foreign than impressive. “Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.” Once we can identify and focus on these emotional connections, the writing becomes easier because it can flow from the heart and not solely from the mind. To teach spoken word poetry we must help students identify and value their own emotional connections. To perform spoken word effectively, the poet must present ideas tied to emotion, theirs or others’. Spoken word poetry has an immediacy, an urgency, and this exigency is heard not only in word, but in tone, pace, volume, and expression of emotion. A theory for the praxis of teaching performance poetry.
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