Certain Ideas can only live in Certain Formats, or why 95% of Spoken Word is Bad
95% of Spoken Word is bad.You ask the normal Joe-Schmoe who has seen a Spoken Word performance and usually, they’ll politely put the topic to sleep, like putting a handkerchief cloth soaked in chloroform over your inquisitive mouth and cradling your listless body of an emerging opinion to rest.
It is unfortunate too, because that 5%, which makes Spoken Word so powerful, turning spectators into believers, truly is, some kind of wonderful.
I’ll put it this way: I’ve never seen a rap performance that has stuck with me. I’ve seen/heard a few spoken word performances that have stuck with me (Damn near any live performance of Denizen Kane or Beau Sia, when he was more Spoken Word and less Acoustic, or anything Suicide Kings or Mike McGee or Taylor Mali’s “What Teachers Make” or Rives “Sign Language” piece or Bao Phi’s “Reverse Racist” or Mush/Jose/Josh when they were emerging on the scene or anything Proletariat Bronze or Ishle Yi Park’s “Signs of God” or Adriel Luis “Police Brutality” piece).
95% of Spoken Word is bad because it is accessible to anyone and everyone, which is a good and bad thing. It’s good because, poetry has consequentially become, as my man Jose once stated, as ubiquitous as skateboarding (and personally, I would rather have practiced communicators around me, than people skating around me [makes me feel old]).
Just because you do something, doesn’t mean you do it well. I believe practice and discipline can make anyone go from good to great in whatever profession/hobby one wishes to pursue. Hence, I think anyone can become a great spoken word poet!
The problem with Spoken Word is every organization or group that incorporates the component into their programs is they don’t hire/consult someone who is an authority in this very specific craft. Sure, admirers of the art have the right spirit, but ultimately, lack the skill-set, experience and instinct to facilitate “good” Spoken Word creation.
To put this into relatable terms, think of the Literary Arts in terms of the Culinary Arts. Both are artistic expressions ultimately to be consumed, to nourish the beings of others. These arts are constructed of folks who command many different branches respectively - Literary arts have say essayists, short story writers, novelists - Culinary arts have Grillmasters Bartenders, Chefs.
Think of Spoken Word artists like pastry chefs. You want a seasoned member who has had experience in the field, in creation, in managing, in editing, in taste-testing, in experimentation. If you are an organization looking to bake respectable Spoken Word into your programs, you want someone who knows how to bake, not someone who has heated up a loaf of bread or has home-made garlic bread.
Yes, Spoken Word is like food - when it is delicious, it will leave you wanting more. When it is horrible, not only will it leave a bad taste in your mouth, it will have you bad-mouthing it like wicked gospel.
Spoken Word exists because of ideas. The difference between “Good” Spoken Word and “Bad” Spoken Word lies in the congruence of the ideas and the Spoken Word format itself. Hear me out.
All the literary arts are like factory manufacturing machines or processing chips and ideas are the products you want to sell, spread to the outside world, the size to your choosing. In order to successfully produce this product, you have to put this un-formed product, this idea, through one of these machines, to yield a presentable, consumable product.
Some ideas can actually be processed through many different machines. Some ideas can only be processed through one machine.
Let’s ground this idea. The book “Fast Food Nation” was a bestseller - its movie incarnation, not as much. Kanye West’s song, “Heard ‘Em Say,” is an awesome song, that yielded many great music video incarnations, as Mr. West felt the previous video still wasn’t a good enough product for his idea.
Now, Harry Potter became popular as a book series, then even more successful as a film series, but would it ever work as poems, or albums of songs? Grand Theft Auto is one of the most successful video game series of all time, but would it ever have taken off if it started off as novels?
Speaking from experience, when Spoken Word artists create, we’re scrounging into our own personal depths to unbury ideas worth nurturing. A reason why I decided to part ways with the scene was because I just didn’t feel I had any more stories to tell, rather, the stories I did have to tell just wouldn’t work in the Spoken Word format. Perhaps, some stories would work as a couple of haikus, drunken reminisce, some would have made nice, modest short films I could have shared with my friends. Ultimately, I ran out of stories I felt could fit in the Spoken Word format. For me, when one runs out of personal stories to share within Spoken Word and yet, one tries to stay within the format, nothing but the in-authentic, the incongruous, can come of it. And if you were to ask me what I consider “bad” Spoken Word, I would call it over-reaching, imbalanced, not coming from the heart and spirit.
That’s why I think one cannot constantly create without recline. There has to be an ebb and flow. A balance. A reflection, then force. The pause, before a turn. To kiss, and then, to be kissed.
That’s why you can say, I am where I am now. Living, taking the world in. After 6 years or authoring nothing I could share, I can now say, I am at a place and time, where I am ready to kiss.
Ideas have their time. Ideas have their place. Ideas have their formats.
