04290nam 2200661 450 991079475620332120230126223236.00-8135-8003-X0-8135-8004-810.36019/9780813580043(CKB)4340000000188444(OCoLC)1000521339(MdBmJHUP)muse57932(MiAaPQ)EBC4789882(DE-B1597)526321(DE-B1597)9780813580043(Au-PeEL)EBL4789882(CaPaEBR)ebr11443840(CaONFJC)MIL1037077(EXLCZ)99434000000018844420171009h20172017 uy 0engur|||||||nn|ntxtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierKilling poetry blackness and the making of slam and spoken word communities /Javon JohnsonNew Brunswick, [New Jersey] :Rutgers University Press,2017.©20171 online resource (pages cm)0-8135-8002-1 Includes bibliographical references and index.Front matter --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" --Acknowledgments --Notes --References --IndexIn 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.American poetryAfrican American authorsHistory and criticismPoetry slamsUnited StatesHistoryPerformance poetryUnited StatesHistory and criticismPoetrySocial aspectsUnited StatesPoetryPolitical aspectsUnited StatesAmerican poetry20th centuryHistory and criticismAmerican poetry21st centuryHistory and criticismAmerican poetryAfrican American authorsHistory and criticism.Poetry slamsHistory.Performance poetryHistory and criticism.PoetrySocial aspectsPoetryPolitical aspectsAmerican poetryHistory and criticism.American poetryHistory and criticism.811.009/896073POE005050SOC001000ART060000SOC022000MUS031000bisacshJohnson Javon1547084MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910794756203321Killing poetry3803147UNINA