Fourth Word: Verbal art on its own terms: Ethnopoetics
Slam poetry really must be experienced in order to be fully appreciated. Like almost all oral poetry, its natural venue is performance. Thanks to the generosity of Lynne Procope, we are able to make available as part of this e-companion her live performance of her poem "elemental woman," which is discussed on pages 97-102 of HROP. The book offers an ethnopoetic scoring or "script" for the live performance and compares it to a published version of the same poem. Or is it the same? Predictably, for all of its coding of loudness, intonation, gesture, and other features, the script falls far short of re-creating the experience. Even though transcriptions can help us understand what makes an oral poem, the page can never entirely simulate the performance.
Click on one of the links below to join Lynne Procope's audience.
Slam Poetry Video:
Useful Links
| www.bowerypoetry.com | NYC Urbana Slam |
| www.a2slam.com | Ann Arbor Poetry Slam |
| www.austinslam.com | Austin Poetry Slam |
| www.livepoets.com | A collection of slam video archived over the last couple of years |
| www.thewordsmithpress.com | Defending the honor and heritage of self-publishing with tips to writers, performers, and self-publishers. Some of the best performance poets working the English language today. |