From the African American Oral Tradition to Slam Poetry: Rhetoric and Stylistics

Presentation Type

Oral and/or Visual Presentation

Presenter Major(s)

Writing

Location

Kirkhof Center 2201

Start Date

10-4-2013 12:00 AM

End Date

10-4-2013 12:00 AM

Abstract

Slam poetry is one of African Americans most recent cultural innovations. The artistry of slam poetry is undervalued while its entertainment appeal is overvalued. This research project focuses on selected verbal features of slam poetry and seeks to balance the artistic and entertainment appeal of contemporary slam poetry by demonstrating that its verbal features derive from a linguistic heritage in early forms of Black English vernacular oral storytelling and from performance poetry produced by African Americans in the mid-twentieth century. Sociolinguistics, specifically descriptive linguistics and discourse analysis, will be used as methodologies to isolate and describe artistic and rhetorical features that slam poetry shares with texts in the Black vernacular oral tradition. This research will also answer questions about slam and hopefully produce contemporaries who are better informed of slam poetry's cultural legacy.

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Apr 10th, 12:00 AM Apr 10th, 12:00 AM

From the African American Oral Tradition to Slam Poetry: Rhetoric and Stylistics

Kirkhof Center 2201

Slam poetry is one of African Americans most recent cultural innovations. The artistry of slam poetry is undervalued while its entertainment appeal is overvalued. This research project focuses on selected verbal features of slam poetry and seeks to balance the artistic and entertainment appeal of contemporary slam poetry by demonstrating that its verbal features derive from a linguistic heritage in early forms of Black English vernacular oral storytelling and from performance poetry produced by African Americans in the mid-twentieth century. Sociolinguistics, specifically descriptive linguistics and discourse analysis, will be used as methodologies to isolate and describe artistic and rhetorical features that slam poetry shares with texts in the Black vernacular oral tradition. This research will also answer questions about slam and hopefully produce contemporaries who are better informed of slam poetry's cultural legacy.