Spoken Word Poetry as Political Act

Sheri-D Wilson

Spoken Word Poetry as Political Act— as experienced most clearly in Sheri-D's most recent collection, Open Letter: Woman Against Violence Against Women. This collection was born out of improvisation.

“As Spoken Word, Technology, and Community Intersect.”

Spoken Word Poetry, or Performance Poetry, may be regarded as poetry by the people for the people. Consequently, the form, or genre, often reflects on many levels the voice and the needs of the community that it represents. Therefore, it is the job of every Spoken Word artist to listen/watch, and then ask themselves: What is the relevance of what am I saying? What does my community need? How do I reflect and serve my community better with poetry? How do I give voice to more people, particularly the under-represented? What variables might I access to bring poetry to the world in new and innovative ways?

In the following essay I will discuss two topics: 1) the transmogrification of poetry through technology, and 2) poetry as it reflects, transforms and inspires communities.

Technological platforms and Spoken Word are undeniably interconnected, and the resurgence of the oral tradition has been contingent on the capabilities and inspiration technology has propounded. That said, as Spoken Word mirrors the dynamics of technology, the demands on the artist to remain adaptable and literarily agile is essential.

Spoken Word has effectively accessed possibilities presented by technology to create and develop an advance-guard form of literature, which imitates the countless domains of our fast evolving world. It is a writing/performance practice which is socially and politically relevant—punctuated and influenced by a multitude of alternative performance and presentation possibilities. Those include: websites, video, audio, streaming, blogs, YouTube, Podcasts, texting, multi-media performance, music sourcing, electronic gadgetry, et cetera. For these reasons, both the craft and its diverse audience have advanced at quantum speeds, which has widened the popularity of poetry, in general.

Conceptually it is a fascinating dichotomy; on one hand we are examining the oldest form of storytelling; on the other, we are discussing its presentation with the latest cutting-edge technology. Perhaps then, we must view the exchange between technology and Spoken Word poetry as an interplay, much like a jazz jam. One thing's for certain, though: these two fast evolving mediums play off of one another like positive and negative charges in an electrical field. And we do know that creative opportunities abound for the Spoken Word artists as technology intensifies.

Which came first, the zero or the one? Let us begin by considering the text itself. The way a Spoken Word artist approaches the text may be unique, as the artist is aware that the text will

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likely be spoken or performed. The performative element informs the artist in regards to the language, the rhythm, the timing and the actual dramatic curve of the poem. We may relate this to the way in which a playwright may develop their work, with the knowledge their words will be presented aloud. For this reason, the approach to reading a Spoken Word text is through the eyes of the orator, rather than the eyes of poetry written specifically for the page. The comma, as decided by the writer, could represent where the orator might breathe, much the same as Ginsberg’s usage of proprioception. By this I refer to “proprioceptive immanence,” in which the body becomes a unifying core, which poetry might make use of. The breath being the essence of that core. It may be explained as the relationship between the mind and the body communicating spontaneous ideas into the space—resonant energy. Therefore, there has arisen a new way for poetry to be viewed, before we even consider the actual oration, or the possible medium of the presentation.

I cannot remember a time when Spoken Word artists did not create and edit their work to better adapt their voices to technological platforms. For the ill-informed, or uneducated, this new and developing form of poetry seemingly does not follow any literary structure. Spoken Word poetry bends ideas, sounds, words, language and the line to meet the strict structural requirements imposed by oration, and often then, by hyper-digital multimodality. Spoken Word poetry works both with the boundaries technology presents and with the opportunity afforded to performance, to manipulate and even stretch the limitations to create new ways of working within the political/ poetical realm.

At this point, let us explore some of the instances where technology and performance have intersected within my own poetical practice. In the early 80’s, Heather Haley launched a project called Tele-poetics, a poetry reading between three cities through the use of video feed and telephone lines. A complication with this technology included a three second delay between the video image and the audio feed. This presented the possibility of developing the poem to play with this misalignment between gesture and voice. For this, I intentionally wrote a poem where the audio and visual would contradict one another—for example, the picture being transmitted might convey the body language of anger and frustration, while the voice expounds loving joy and acceptance.

When I studied at Naropa, one of the lessons Ginsberg imparted was the beatnik interpretation that poetry embodied the rhythm of the street—or jazz poetry. The street itself had a voice which the poet might tap into if they listen. Equipped with a small handheld tape recorder, I decided to interpret his theory in quite literal terms. I would tape record the rhythm of boots on concrete walking at full speed during a New York City rush hour, the hiss of steam rising out of manholes, the traffic with its full-on honking before New York banned honking, the sound street rap like a person getting mugged; and my favorite, the calls of a street hustler beckoning passerby’s to participate in the shell game, or thimblerig: “the red one! The red one! Pick the red one and you win! New York! New York! Step right up, pick the red one, the red one, the red one you win! New York! New York!” After collecting these sounds, I then transcribed the calls into syllables on a page and wrote poetry within these sound modulations. Sometimes I would even use small excerpts of these street calls to punctuate the poem. This is poetry rooted in spontaneity, this is “projective speak,” where the poem is thrown onto the page (at first draft phase). I have heard it referred to as a projectile, but I prefer the word bird—hawk. And then, in

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performance there is a direct transfer of energy between the speaker and the listener, which transports the listener to the exact place and time of the poet when they wrote the piece in the state of epiphany.

The exploration of the confluence between poetry, gadgetry and/or organic sound has always fascinated and inspired me. And I have written pieces to the rhythmic metronome of a myriad of organic and inorganic sounds—like the magnified sound of a drop of water striking a tin sink, or an antique type writer. Sound has been an important component of my poetic practice. Recently I stumbled upon a tape of an old school auctioneer calling bids for heavy equipment. To me the staccatos immediately dove-tailed with a poem I had written affecting a world of materialism and over-consumerism. Another time I performed a poem about the accountability of one’s life, and utilized the punctuated sounds of an adding machine to intensify the experience of the piece.

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Early in my publishing career, I recognized that performance poetry must be edited orally. With this in mind, I approached Roy Surette at Touchstone Theater, who was very enthusiastic about my ideas, and created space to workshop my poems, hiring several actors to read them aloud while editor Patrick Lane listen and then edited my poems based on their performative qualities. When we speak of the music of poetry, it is essential to reflect on the notion of rhythm, stops, and silences. For me, the only way to establish how this translates to the page is to experience the poem with its breath. Since then, I have edited all of my books orally.

TechnologyThe first idea that pops to mind is Thomas Merton’s commentary of the western man’s confused interpretation of Zen. Merton wrote, “…it is a symptom of western man’s desperate need to recover spontaneity and depth in a world which his technological skill has made rigid, artificial and spiritually void.”

As Spoken Word began to emerge, so did the interface of digital technology. Rather than making the screen the purveyor of the text itself, like some of BP Nichols textual experiments, I chose to treat the screen as an extension of the stage. Like many other poets, I became interested in the presentation of poetry in video, playing with the video as if it were a part of the poem. One of the difficulties that has arisen for me is the obsolescence of some of the technology I originally recorded on. The irony is, because I used these cutting-edge techniques, it would now be very difficult to find the technology to upload my arcane file formats. That said, I have made many video poems since these originals, yet I still mourn the inability to access my earlier work.

The video poems I have created over the last 15 years are accessible on the web. The seemingly unstoppable progression of digital technology places these poems within a temporal context. While I crafted my videos with the assistance of filmmaking teams, the technology raced on in front of me. Film quality became less of a necessity, and artists began to independently tape and share their work through low budget means such as webcams and phones. I find this to be a fascinating development, and intend to present a series of poems created on a cell phone. As a result of this technological shift, viewers come to these videos with a different attitude than they would have displayed a decade ago. While my older video poems are often over five minutes in length, today’s YouTube viewer often wants ideas and images presented as sound bites. Also, there seems to be an emerging desire for presentations to be comfy, cozy, and warm, which is disconcerting to say the least. Feel good poetry which presents oversimplified solutions rather than enacting genuine thought and change presents a danger to all poetry. I am considering what my response might be, and I can assure you it will not be a poetry meme!

One of the other dangers regarding the development of new forms is when artists create boxes and labels which other artists must live within. For example, when someone says that a video poem must feature text in order to be legitimate, this creates boundaries and limitations which inhibit creativity. I am not sure where the concept of the video poem will go, but I am interested to see how poetry will evolve with video poems in the future.

Another example of this interplay between poetry and technology can be seen in my book Goddess Gone Fishing for a Map of the Universe, where I incorporated QR codes throughout the book. These QR codes enabled readers to access recordings and video of the poems. This

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transformed the page into a performative venue, thus expanding the written page into a medium incorporating the sense of sound. I had the launch of the book recorded and then linked the footage to the QR code which invited the reader to participate in a double experience. The reader is also invited to make comments which are displayed on the homepage of my website. Hence an interactive experience. However, the inclusion of QR codes is once again problematized by the transience nature of technology. For as these codes become obsolete, and reader may not understand their significance. In that case, the QR codes become symbols which present a mystery, and maybe an aspect of the poetry that cannot be understood. Luckily, in this book, which examines the uncertain nature of the universe, these representations of the unknown can become visual signifiers for the unexplainable.

Social MediaAs technology shapes our world, email shapes the framework in which we communicate. While our sentences have become shorter, our demand for concise interaction has become greater. That said, it seems the public has become more interested in poetic language. Spoken Word is largely written in the language of the street—it is the language of the people, as the beatniks proposed. In a sense, it seems that email has assisted the Spoken Word movement, by making language more assessable, and effective writing a necessity for daily life. With that, email has forced people to communicate in a more authentic way, and it is this authenticity that the Spoken Word artist explores.

Cell phones allow any user to become a poet and photographer, and encourage communication through focus on the moment—its image, its emotion, its language. This can be used within the principals of Zen, where the text becomes a haiku. The snapshot may become an exercise in mindfulness, as one notices the intricacies within daily life. Texting allows us to communicate through brief images and snippets of emotion, as we learn to use sparsity to pack meaning into absences. Twitter forces us to reduce our views down to 140 characters and to zoom in on what we are attempting to relate. Facebook has also shaped how we as a society communicate. Posts can be poetic, both intentionally and unintentionally. Anyone can post their poems and observations—and because inclusion is a philosophical imperative, Spoken Word artists have the opportunity to participate in the community.

The Spoken Word artist may utilize these new ways of seeing and being as pictures and snippets embody that moment, and serve as an extension of the poem of the text, invoking a multimedia approach to express oneself and share one’s experience. This can be a good thing, yet it also holds the potential to corrupt the pleasure of a moment and the possibility for deeper observation. This rapid communication through common language is a direct extension of what Spoken Word already does, and the two thus hold great potential to feed each other. Because Spoken Word poetry embodies physicality, including gesture and tone, these artists speak for humanity, and the community is drawn to the organic nature of this poetic form.

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As social activism is also fundamental to Spoken Word, these technological mediums have been essential to the development of the diverse community. In this way, social media have assisted the artist as a communicator, but also been a major component in the development of the community. Communities have arisen across the planet, and it is reasonably easy to get information about readings and community events no matter where you are. This has been a good thing.

On the other side of the coin: we live in a world where we’re constantly inundated by a technological overload. And we all know how difficult it is to find the gem hidden in the library of mass ignorance. The obsession with recording a moment can itself destroy the experience. We become fixated on social media personas and how we’re perceived, using Facebook and Instagram to compulsively show how much fun we’re having, rather than actually having fun. Narcissism becomes ubiquitous as we create false selves in order to gain external approval. So, although technology holds the potential for connection, it often distances us from our connection to the present and to our genuine selves. This creates a void which leaves our spiritual, emotional, social and psychological needs unfulfilled. Spoken Word poetry addresses these needs and presents a possibility for more genuine connection. Thus, its popularity escalates and aids in the formation of community. Spoken Word addresses this void by creating poetry which speaks to the spirit, the heart, and our humanity.

Community ActivismIt’s not what you can do for me but, what I can do for you. With that in mind, the community has grown leaps and bounds, as Spoken Word artists produce weekly, monthly and annual readings and festivals.

With that adage in mind I initiated several reading series, including Single Onion and the Calgary Slam. Calgary also hosted The National Slam competition in 2008. In 2003 I initiated the Calgary Spoken Word Festival, which continued until 2014. The festival grew to be one of the largest in Canada.

In 2007 I launched Word Travels, an educational program for youth, which has taken on many roles/shapes in the community. From the poets-in-schools to residencies, from workshops to transporting students to a central location for readings—the program has served to educate the community on many levels—about Spoken Word, both listening and in the creation of poetry themselves.

In 2005 I brought together 12 activist/ Spoken Word poets to form the first Spoken Word Program at The Banff Centre. I continued as Director of the Spoken Word Program until 2012, when I stepped down to give space for a new incarnation of the program.

In 2016 I created a new initiative called The School of Thought: Languages Lost & Found. This is a new program structured to reflect life in our rapidly changing world. Founded on a basis of social activism as it intersects with poetry, I intended the forum to be a source of entertainment, and also a place for minds to come together, to question the world in a new and challenging way. Philosophers, thinkers, dreamers, and poets came together to discuss the concept of language,

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with all the problems and possibilities presented at this unpredictable moment in time, in which languages worldwide are being lost, revived, rediscovered and recreated (as in Aboriginal languages through to Conlanging). In the form of a circle, the School of Thought offered an inclusive environment in which to discuss these issues, inviting the general public to interact and engage. Through The School of Thought, we offered each other possible ways of exploring how we speak and think together, to unite and examine what is important to us—both as individuals and as participants in a global society. The outcome was unprecedented, as we discussed how language is connected to the land and the destruction of language related to our disregard for the environment. Technology also played an important role in how we see the evolution of language. By examining how we communicate, what we say, and how we say; we become more conscience of our interactions with each other and the earth. This may inform the Spoken Word artists who were involved to take new paths with their own work.

All ideas considered, perhaps it is the relationship between Spoken Word poetry and technology that focuses the work into human justice and equalit—humanity. If we begin to work together in new ways we may open the potential to communication necessary to bringing the focus of our world to a place of inclusion and empathy. Listening to the earth and to each other with greater understanding may create a path of peaceful existence. Spoken Word, and storytelling with truth at its core awakens a new way of being.

From: Goddess Gone Fishing for a Map of the Universe, Frontenac House, 2012

ODE TO MY MICROSCOPIC LIFE

Part I – Preamble:

Last year a Vancouver magazine calls meAnd they say: In 1991 you were on the cover of our magazineAnd one of our YOUNG interns was going through the OLD archives And they found the issue And we’d like to remix your pix And use it on the cover of our magazine next month

Wow Cool, I say Thinking, fabulousI’m going to look like I haven’t aged a dayIn twenty yearsFabulous, I say

Great, she says, we’ll use you on the coverAnd oh I should tell you We’re going to call the issue, “Micro-celebrities”

Micro-celebrities…

And then she adds: Do you mind?

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Silence (*#*%^!)

Do you mind?

Silence (%$*!&#)

Do you mind?

Silence (@*#&%$!?*#*%^!)

I say...

Part II – Ode to my Microscopic Life:

to the micro-micro dot and the quantum shot—of drink me Alice in Wonderland’s alter rot,to coming in under the radar maybe millionth; between centi & zepto, milli & nanocause there was no race in the first placejust open space by which to museto dance up close, no socks no shoes with a beautiful delusion of bones,like a rhizome poem; or to zoom in tight on a biome org – the complete unknown,so synonymous with anonymous my life’s almost hieroglyphic, microfiche-alisticzip zilch zero—that’s me, a beautiful mythicsnippet of micro-free-dom, I saymaybe I’m an Apeirophobewith the mortal fear of infinity—not divinity my life in the vicinity of obscurity a molecular semi-celebrity, if I were a marble I’d wanna be a peeweesurveillance cameras are the only paparazzi for me

Ode to the quasi, and the demi-tasseto the infinite infinitesimaland the ass with sass in a micro-miniand the stingless drone, who lives to loveand the microphone, of cosmic-cosm’s aboveso below; then again, zero in Tarot is birth of our hero/ine’s first breath toward death,

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the new million’s a trillion, and I’m comin’ in nothin’ for nothin’; I’m a trilobitea compact disk—with nothing to risk, exceptthe calamity of my own omni-vision vanity

RAM ROM RAM ROM DNA—d’oh!Microbe! Attack of the killer micros!they’re as big as micro is softso not to be micro-scoffed,and I hear Jiminy Cricket’s a macrophiliacwith a giant fetish, so I guess you’d sayhe was micro-giga-boffed; obviouslyI’m not an eve I’m an atomthe bigger I get the smaller everything looks—a floccinaucinihilipilificationsurfing the micro waves

Ode to being and nothingness and the minimalist to the tiny titanic and the minuscule gigantic to the micro macrobiotic and the macro micro-iconicnaked to the unnaked eye—we’re all size etherizedwhen the only way to be seen is through a lenson a slide—then, get a midway ticket and take a techno-ridestraight into humanity, cause that’s what I chooseover social insanity—compression oppressiondenied, denied, denied

as Gertrude Stein so aptly put it on her death bedwhen she said: Now what was the question?

Silence

Now what was the question?

Silence

Now what was the question?

Silence

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Photo Credits Vancouver Small Press Festival, 1990 Confessions: A Jazz Play (my first Spoken Word Play)

1991 Tamahnous Theatre, Vancouver Credit: Teri Snelgrove Present day, 2016, Credit: Mike Roberts

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