Research Catalog

Title

Killing poetry : blackness and the making of slam and spoken word communities / Javon Johnson.

Author

Johnson, Javon

Publication

New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, [2017]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xi, 156 pages; 23 cm

Summary

"In recent decades, poetry slams and the spoken word artists who compete in them have sparked a resurgent fascination with the world of poetry. However, there is little critical dialogue that fully engages with the cultural complexities present in slam and spoken word poetry communities, as well as their ramifications. In Killing Poetry, renowned slam poet, Javon Johnson unpacks some of the complicated issues that comprise performance poetry spaces. He argues that the truly radical potential in slam and spoken word communities lies not just in proving literary worth, speaking back to power, or even in altering power structures, but instead in imagining and working towards altogether different social relationships. His illuminating ethnography provides a critical history of the slam, contextualizes contemporary black poets in larger black literary traditions, and does away with the notion that poetry slams are inherently radically democratic and utopic. Killing Poetry--at times autobiographical, poetic, and journalistic--analyzes the masculine posturing in the Southern California community in particular, the sexual assault in the national community, and the ways in which related social media inadvertently replicate many of the same white supremacist, patriarchal, and mainstream logics so many spoken word poets seem to be working against. Throughout, Johnson examines the promises and problems within slam and spoken word, while illustrating how community is made and remade in hopes of eventually creating the radical spaces so many of these poets strive to achieve"--

Alternative Title

• Blackness and the making of slam and spoken word communities
• Slam and spoken word communities

Subject

• 1900-2099
• American poetry > African American authors > History and criticism
• Poetry slams > United States > History
• Performance poetry > United States > History and criticism
• Poetry > Social aspects > United States
• Poetry > Political aspects > United States
• American poetry > 21st century > History and criticism
• American poetry > 20th century > History and criticism
• American poetry
• American poetry > African American authors
• Performance poetry
• Poetry > Political aspects
• Poetry slams
• Poetry > Social aspects
• United States

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Preface -- 1. Let the slam begin : history, method, and beyond -- 2. "This DPL, come on!" : black manhood in the Los Angeles slam and spoken word scene -- 3. SlamMasters : toward creative and transformative justice -- 4. Button up : viral poetry and rethinking the archives -- 5 Conclusion: "That is the slam, everybody" -- Glossary.

Call Number

Sc D 17-2178

ISBN

• 9780813580029
• 0813580021
• 9780813580012
• 0813580013
• 9780813580036 (canceled/invalid)
• 9780813580043 (canceled/invalid)
• 9780813591124 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

• 2016044021
• 40027346509

OCLC

959034428

Author

Johnson, Javon, author.

Title

Killing poetry : blackness and the making of slam and spoken word communities / Javon Johnson.

Publisher

New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, [2017]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1900-2099

Local Subject

Black author.

Other Standard Identifier

40027346509

Research Call Number

Sc D 17-2178