Download or read book Not A Lot of Reasons to Sing but Enough written by Kyle Tran Myhre and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: OF WHAT FUTURE ARE THESE THE WILD, EARLY DAYS? An exploration of the role that artists play in resisting authoritarianism with a sci-fi twist. In poetry, dialogue and visual art the book follows two wandering poets as they make their way from village to village, across a prison colony moon full of exiled rebels, robots, and storytellers. Part post-apocalyptic road journal, part alternate universe history of Hip Hop, and part “Letters to a Young Poet”-style toolkit for emerging poets and aspiring movement-builders, it's also a one-of-a-kind practitioners' take on poetry, power, and possibility. NOT A LOT OF REASONS TO SING is a: -post-apocalyptic road journal -alternate universe history of Hip Hop -“Letters to a Young Poet” -toolkit for emerging poets and aspiring movement-builders it's also a one-of-a-kind practitioners' take on poetry, power, and possibility.

Download or read book A Socially Acceptable Breakdown written by Patrick Roche and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2022 Eric Hoffer Awards - Poetry Finalist A poetry collection pulling from the author's personal narrative to take the reader on a journey through family, mental health, grief, pop culture, body image, queer identity, love, joy, memory, myth, and magic. The collection follows a trajectory of 1) exploring identity, avoidance, escapism, and shame, then 2) facing and confronting fears, shame, grief, and self-image, and finally 3) breaking down stigma, searching for joy, finding self-acceptance, and the value of storytelling and sharing as a tool to connect, love, and choose progress.

Download or read book Killing Poetry written by Javon Johnson and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-17 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2019 Lilla A. Heston Award Co-winner of the 2018 Ethnography Division’s Best Book from the NCA In 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.

Download or read book Respect the Mic written by Peter Kahn and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An expansive, moving poetry anthology, representing 20 years of poetry from students and alumni of Chicago's Oak Park River Forest High School Spoken Word Club. "Poets I know sometimes joke that the poetry club at Oak Park River Forest High School is the best MFA program in the Chicagoland area. Like all great jokes, this one is dead serious." -Eve L. Ewing, award-winning poet, playwright, scholar, and sociologist For Chicago's Oak Park and River Forest High School's Spoken Word Club, there is one phrase that reigns supreme: Respect the Mic. It's been the club's call to arms since its inception in 1999. As its founder Peter Kahn says, "It's a call of pride and history and tradition and hope." This vivid new collection of poetry and prose -- curated by award-winning and bestselling poets Hanif Abdurraqib, Franny Choi, Peter Kahn, and Dan "Sully" Sullivan -- illuminates just that, uplifting the incredible legacy this community has cultivated. Among the dozens of current students and alumni, Respect the Mic features work by NBA champion Iman Shumpert, National Youth Poet Laureate Kara Jackson, National Youth Poet Laureate Kara Jackson, National Student Poet Natalie Richardson, comedian Langston Kerman, and more. In its pages, you hear the sprawling echoes of students, siblings, lovers, new parents, athletes, entertainers, scientists, and more --all sharing a deep appreciation for the power of storytelling. A celebration of the past, a balm for the present, and a blueprint for the future, Respect the Mic offers a tender, intimate portrait of American life, and conveys how in a world increasingly defined by separation, poetry has the capacity to bind us together.

Download or read book Bullets Butterflies written by Emanuel Xavier and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A luscious, vibrant, and wicked anthology featuring poetry by Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, Regie Cabico, Staceyann Chin, Celena Glenn, Daphne Gottlieb, Maurice Jamal, Shane Luitjens, Marty McConnell, Travis Montez, Alix Olson, Shailja Patel, and Horehound Stillpoint.

Download or read book BloodFresh written by Ebony Stewart and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BloodFresh is a celebration of identity. Ebony Stewart reclaims her own narrative to speak against the racism and colorism she’s experienced, while criticizing society’s treatment of women as sexual objects. This collection reaffirms the reader through storytelling as an open letter to retell, acknowledge, overcome, and learn new ways to use poetry as a coping technique. As BloodFresh reflects the importance of owning your own space, Stewart carves out a home for herself, her poems, and all of the readers who take refuge in her words.

Download or read book Take the Mic written by Marc Smith and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2009-04-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get on Stage and Perfect Your Performance Have you ever enjoyed a slam or two and thought, "I could do this," but felt apprehensive staring at that empty mic—or worse, you climbed up on stage and struggled? Let Marc Kelly Smith, the founder of Slam Poetry, teach you everything you need to be a confident performer, from writing a powerful poem, to stage techniques, to going on tour (if that's where your muse leads you). Take the Mic is filled with insider tips, backstage advice, and tons of examples of slam poems that wake up an audience. With this book, you'll also be able to link to the PoetrySpeaks.com community to listen to samples, meet poets, and unearth inspirations for your next performance. The Ultimate Guide to Writing and Performing with Power Take the Mic is an essential guide for lifting your poetry from the page to the stage. Marc Kelly Smith (So What!), grand founder of the Slam movement, serves as you personal coach, showing you how to craft stage-worthy verse and deliver a poetry performance that shakes the rafters and sparks thunderous applause. In Take the Mic, you discover how to... Pen poetry that's conducive to on-stage performance Overcome stage fright Practice powerful performance techniques Rehearse like a pro Shape a loose collection of poems into a killer set Connect with your audience — heart and soul Master the art of self-promotion Schedule your own slam poetry tour Transform your hobby into paying gigs Act professional to establish a solid reputation in the Slam community Take the Mic is packed with practical exercises you can do alone or in class to hone your skills and transform your body, mind, voice, verse, and spirit into an engaging stage presence. You'll also find a brief history of slam, the rules and regulations that govern official slam competitions, and a list of PSI (Poetry Slam, Inc.) Certified Slams, so no matter where you are, you always have a place to Take the Mic!

Download or read book The Room Is on Fire written by Susan Weinstein and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Room Is on Fire offers an overview of youth spoken word poetry's history, its practitioners, participants, and practices. Susan Weinstein explores its grounding in earlier literary/performance/educational traditions and discusses its particular challenges. In order to analyze these issues, the story of how youth spoken word poetry developed as a field is told through the voices of those involved. Interviewees include the people who organized the first youth poetry slam festivals, the founders of central youth spoken word organizations, and a selection of young people who have participated in their local programs and in regional and national events over the last two decades. Narratives about individual and communal efforts and experiences are supported by analyses of full-text poems by youth poets and by reference to contemporary scholarship in performance studies, critical youth studies, and new literacy studies. Blending history and theory with practical descriptions of how spoken word poetry is taught and how to produce spoken word events, the book will appeal to researchers, teacher educators, and K–12 teachers.

Download or read book A Love Song A Death Rattle A Battle Cry written by Kyle Tran Myhre and published by Button Poetry. This book was released on 2018-03-01 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One part mixtape, one part disorientation guide, and one part career retrospective, Kyle "Guante" Tran Myhre's debut looks you directly in the eye and doesn't let you flinch. Ranging from justice to love, community action to personal reflection, A Love Song, A Death Rattle, A Battle Cry is a dedication to craft. Clocking in before the rest of us are even awake, the book wastes no time. It does the work and beckons you to follow. A compilation of poems, lyrics and essays from the UN presenter, MC, and two-time National Poetry Slam champion, this book is a love song tucked into a grenade, a necessary call that demands a response.

Download or read book B written by Sarah Kay and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2015-04-28 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A whimsical love letter, a shared promise, a thank you note, and a whispered secret to mothers and daughters everywhere. The perfect gift, B celebrates the bond that exists between a parent and a child. Short, touching, and lovingly illustrated, it is a family tradition waiting to begin.

Download or read book Writing in Rhythm written by Maisha T. Fisher and published by Teachers College Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “In this book, Maisha Fisher invites us to pull up a chair and listen in as young people insert their own rhythms into school life. . . . But this book is not a simple celebration of student voice. It is an ethnographic account of the teaching and learning processes through which lived (or longed-for) experience was disciplined into verbal rhythms.” —From the Foreword by Anne Haas Dyson, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, author of The Brothers and Sisters Learn to Write “Prepare to rethink the role of popular youth culture in the classroom. This work demonstrates some of the most respected theories of learning put into action through the roles and rules of young people's poetry. We leave this work alive and alert to ways that youth culture can transcend generations, everyday identities, and life disruptions.” —Shirley Brice Heath, Professor at Large, Brown University This dynamic book examines how literacy learning can be expanded and redefined using the medium of spoken word poetry. The author tells the story of a passionate Language Arts teacher and his work with The Power Writers, an after-school writing community of Latino and African-American students. Featuring rich portraits of literacy in action, this book introduces teaching practices for fostering peer support, generating new vocabulary, discussing issues of Standard American English, and using personal experiences as literary inspiration. Drawing from literature in both literacy research and cultural studies, this book: Provides a model for incorporating “open mic” formats and the public sharing of reading and writing in literacy classes with urban youth.Shows how teachers can approach teaching with profound respect for student cultures, languages, and life experiences.Offers a new way of talking about literacy with urban high school students, including new terminology generated by the teachers and students.Explores what it means for Language Arts teachers to be “practitioners of the craft.”

Download or read book Never Catch Me written by Darius Simpson and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2022-10-25 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2023 Midwest Book Award Winner 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist Darius Simpson’s debut collection Never Catch Me centers on Black boyhood in the midwest and familial disintegration over time. Simpson pulls back the curtain, exposing the violence enacted against and upon, Black bodies, and yet, still, each poem is saturated in revolution and hope. Never Catch Me is the anthem necessary to organize a community that is committed to a better right now–one that can only be achieved with an intensity and action that goes far beyond the page.

Download or read book Brand New Ancients written by Kae Tempest and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-03-10 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With this dazzling modern myth in verse, Kae Tempest became the youngest winner of the prestigious Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. Yes, the gods are on the park bench, the gods are on the bus, / The gods are all here, the gods are in us. / The gods are timeless, fearless, fighting to be bold, / conviction is a heavy hand to hold, / grip it, winged sandals tearing up the pavement -- / you, me, everyone: Brand New Ancients. Kae Tempest's words in Brand New Ancients are written to be read aloud; the book combines poem, rap, and humanist sermon, by turns tender and fierce. Set in Southeast London, Brand New Ancients finds the mythic in the mundane. It is the story of two half-brothers, Thomas and Clive, unknown to each other -- Thomas the result of an affair between his mother and Clive's father. Tempest, with wide-ranging empathy, takes us inside the passionless marriage of Jane and Kevin -- the man who suspects Thomas is not his son, but loves him just the same -- and the neighboring home of Mary and Brian, where betrayal has not been so placidly accepted. The sons of these two households -- quiet, creative Thomas and angry, destructive Clive -- will cross paths in adolescence, their fates converging with mortal fury. These characters' loves, their infidelities, their disappointments and their small comforts -- these, Tempest argues, are timeless. Our lives and our choices are no less important than those of history and myth. Awarded the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, Brand New Ancients insists on our importance as individuals -- and asserts Kae Tempest's importance as a talent impossible to ignore.

Download or read book The Spoken Word Revolution written by Mark Eleveld and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A dynamic and clarifying volume chock-full of fresh and informative commentary...and an exciting array of knock-out poems." —Booklist Starred Review "Accompanied by a terrific CD that showcases the great variety of styles performance poetry embraces, from the purest of recitations to seductive musical presentations, this dynamic anthology embodies the thrilling and mutually beneficial rapprochement between the traditionalists and the slammers, something that seemed about as likely 10 years ago as that proverbial cold day in hell." —Chicago Tribune The Spoken Word Revolution brings to life the written and performed works of more than 40 of the most influential slam, hip hop, performance art and contemporary poets in the world today. This defining collection of spoken word poetry captures today's electrifying words and voices, in text and immediately live on one audio CD.

Download or read book Finding My Father written by Blair Linne and published by The Good Book Company. This book was released on 2021-10-01 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A personal story of learning to trust our heavenly Father when you feel your earthly father has let you down. Blair Linne’s personal story of growing up without a father at home reflects the experiences of millions. She weaves her personal story with thoughtful theological reflection, inviting readers to learn from God what "father" really means and to trust him, even if they feel their earthly father has let them down. This book will help readers to shift their eyes from what they do not have in their earthly fathers (who, whether present or absent, loving or the opposite, can never be perfect) to what they do have in their eternal Father, who will never disappoint, reject or abandon them. Readers will see that the gospel promises not just forgiveness but also a place in God's family, experienced in a local church, where they can enjoy the fullness of his fatherly joy, care, wisdom, provision, protection and security. Also includes a chapter by Blair’s husband, the Christian hip-hop artist Shai, on his own story of fatherlessness and faith.

Download or read book No Matter the Wreckage written by Sarah Kay and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2014-08-22 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Top selling poet Sarah Kay releases her debut collection of work from the first decade of her career. Following the success of her breakout poem, "B," No Matter the Wreckage presents readers with new and beloved work that showcases Kay's skill for celebrating family, love, travel, history, and unlikely love affairs between inanimate objects ("Toothbrush to the Bicycle Tire"). Both fresh and wise, Kay's poetry allows readers to join in on her journey of discovering herself and the world around her. - 2011 TED speaker (recording has been viewed 3 million times online) - First book, "B" was ranked #1 Bestselling Poetry Book on Amazon - Featured on HBO, American Public Radio, Huffington Post, CNN.com, etc. - Founder and Co-Director of Project VOICE

Download or read book Ain written by Kai Davis and published by . This book was released on 2019-02-09 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kai Davis' book "Ain't I" is a collection of poems that examine Blackness, womanhood, queerness, and how living in America with these layered identities can affect mental health. Kai Davis's work calls folks out, calls folks in, and always puts Black women first.