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 Hey You C mere written by Elizabeth Swados and published by Scholastic. This book was released on 2002 with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes sixteen poems about subjects ranging from the weather, to family, to food.
Download or read book The Future written by Neil Hilborn and published by Button Poetry. This book was released on 2020-03-12 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards - Best Poetry Book Finalist Filled with nostalgia, love, heartbreak, and the author's signature wry examinations of mental health, Neil Hilborn's second book helps explain what lives inside us, what we struggle to define. Written on the road over two years of touring, The Future is rugged, genuine, and relatable. Grabbing attention like gravity, Hilborn reminds readers that no matter how far away we get, we eventually all drift back together. These poems are fireworks for the numb. In the author's own words, The Future is a blue sky and a full tank of gas, and in it, we are alive.
Download or read book Slam Your Poetry written by Miles Merrill and published by NewSouth. This book was released on 2020-02-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "No props. No music. No costumes. Just you, your words and a mic-you've got two minutes to make the crowd scream your name. Miles Merrill, spoken word artist and founder of Australian Poetry Slam, and award-winning teacher Narcisa Nozica will take you from novice to spoken word superstar in no time. Twenty years after Merrill introduced poetry slams to Australia, there’s a national competition with a live audience of 20 000 people, and it’s taught in schools across the country. It’s been nothing short of a revolution! With tips from stars of the Australian poetry slam scene, including bestselling author Maxine Beneba Clarke, Slam Your Poetry provides step-by-step instructions and exercises that will inspire you to: 1. Write a poem that pops 2. Rehearse like a winner 3. Wow your audience 4. Beat stage fright 5. Run a winning competition for your school or community group Part how-to guide, part masterclass, part manifesto, this book will help teachers, students and wannabe spoken word artists of all ages slam like a pro."
Download or read book No Buddy Like a Book written by Allan Wolf and published by Candlewick. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Calling readers and daydreamers, word mavens and lovers of adventure! This celebration of the power of books is a rallying cry for letting imaginations soar. We learn important stuff from books. We learn to speak and think. We learn why icebergs stay afloat . . . and why Titanics sink. Have you ever wanted to climb to the top of Everest with one hand behind your back? Kiss a crocodile all by yourself on the Nile River? How about learning how to bottle moonlight, or track a distant star? There are endless things to discover and whole universes to explore simply by reading a book. But books are only smears of ink without the reader’s mind to give their letters meaning and bring them to life. With a rollicking, rhyming text and delightful artwork, poet and storyteller Allan Wolf and illustrator Brianne Farley remind us that books, no matter how they may be consumed, give readers of every background an opportunity to expand their world and spark their imagination. With infectious enthusiasm, No Buddy Like a Book offers an ode to the wonders of language—written, spoken, and everything in between.
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 The Type written by Sarah Kay and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2016-02-09 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sarah Kay's powerful spoken word poetry performances have gone viral, with more than 10 million online views and thousands more in global live audiences. In her second single-poem volume, Kay takes readers along a lyrical road toward empowerment, exploring the promise and complicated reality of being a woman. During her spoken word poetry performances, audiences around the world have responded strongly to Sarah Kay's poem The Type. As Kay wrote in The Huffington Post: "Much media attention has been paid to what it means to 'be a woman,' but often the conversation focuses on what it means to be a woman in relation to others. I believe these relationships are important. I also think it is possible to define ourselves solely as individuals... We have the power to define ourselves: by telling our own stories, in our own words, with our own voices." Never-before-published in book form, The Type is illustrated throughout and perfect for gift-giving.
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 Touchscreen written by Marshall Davis Jones and published by . This book was released on 2014-04-10 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written in 2010, "Touchscreen" has been embraced by the tech community as a conversation starter and jumping point to explore technology's role in our lives. Whereas the question used to be, "What CAN technology do for us?," the real question has become, "What SHOULD technology do for us?" How do we balance our expanding online connections with our innate desire for authentic human interaction? Poet, spoken-word artist, and songwriter Marshall Davis Jones challenges us to ask these questions. Marshall Davis Jones found his voice in 2006 at the renowned Nuyorican Poet's Cafe. From there, he has been on a mission to touch the world and inspire others to believe in being human. His original works have been featured on the BBC World News Network, in two TEDx programs, and in the internationally renowned Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix Arizona.
Download or read book Today Means Amen written by Sierra DeMulder and published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-02 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dear you: Whoever you are, However you got here, This is exactly where you are supposed to be. This moment has waited its whole life for you. These are the opening lines of "Today Means Amen," YouTube star Sierra deMulder’s immensely powerful and virally popular poem, which lends its title to this collection. Like her fellow Millennial poets Tyler Knot Gregson, Clementine von Radics, and Lang Leav, Sierra has the gift of speaking directly to the reader. “Today Means Amen” has become an anthem of sorts to thousands, who find themselves reflected in its pain, its fierceness, its tenderness — but also in its triumphant culminating refrain: You made it You made it You made it Here. The poems in Sierra's new book explore the rocky terrains of love, family, and womanhood with this same remarkable honesty and generosity. Today Means Amen brings this important young poet's work to an even broader audience.
Download or read book Poetry Slam written by Gary Glazner and published by Manic D Press. This book was released on 2012-11-25 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry documents the first ten years of this cultural phenomenon with details on slam history and rules, hosting your own slam, winning strategies, tips for memorization, crafting group pieces, and other informative essays, as well as 100 of the best slam-winning poems ever.
Download or read book Counting Descent written by Clint Smith and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2020-01-06 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America * Winner, 2017 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Award * Finalist, 2017 NAACP Image Awards * "One Book One New Orleans" 2017 Book Selection * Published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, New Republic, Boston Review, The Guardian, The Rumpus, and The Academy of American Poets "So many of these poems just blow me away. Incredibly beautiful and powerful." -- Michelle Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow "Counting Descent is a tightly-woven collection of poems whose pages act like an invitation. The invitation is intimate and generous and also a challenge; are you up to asking what is blackness? What is black joy? How is black life loved and lived? To whom do we look to for answers? This invitation is not to a narrow street, or a shallow lake, but to a vast exploration of life. And you’re invited. -- Elizabeth Acevedo, Author of Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths "These poems shimmer with revelatory intensity, approaching us from all sides to immerse us in the America that America so often forgets." -- Gregory Pardlo "Counting Descent is more than brilliant. More than lyrical. More than bluesy. More than courageous. It is terrifying in its ability to at once not hide and show readers why it wants to hide so badly. These poems mend, meld and imagine with weighted details, pauses, idiosyncrasies and word patterns I've never seen before." -- Kiese Laymon, Author of Long Division Clint Smith's debut poetry collection, Counting Descent, is a coming of age story that seeks to complicate our conception of lineage and tradition. "Do you know what it means for your existence to be defined by someone else’s intentions?" Smith explores the cognitive dissonance that results from belonging to a community that unapologetically celebrates black humanity while living in a world that often renders blackness a caricature of fear. His poems move fluidly across personal and political histories, all the while reflecting on the social construction of our lived experiences. Smith brings the reader on a powerful journey forcing us to reflect on all that we learn growing up, and all that we seek to unlearn moving forward.
Download or read book Burning Down the House written by Roger Bonair-Agard and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the summer of 1998, Roger Bonair-Agard, Stephen Colman, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, Alix Olson and Lynne Procope took the championship belt at the National Poetry Slam, the first team from the world-famous Nuyorica Poets Cafe. These five poets stand at the vanguard of the slam movement, with verse that is passionate, tight, political and lucid.
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 Slam written by Alloy Books and published by Turtleback Books. This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of poetry for teenagers.
Download or read book Strike Anywhere written by Michael Lista and published by The Porcupine's Quill. This book was released on 2016-07-08 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I’d like to think that I’m polarizing the way a battery is," explains Michael Lista in his introduction to Strike Anywhere, "energizing the flashlight by which you read in the dark only because it has a negative and a positive side. Collected here, under one cover, are my cathodes and my anodes." In his self-described ‘arsons’, Lista assesses with equal fire our literary darlings (Anne Carson, Don McKay), talented veterans (Steven Heighton, David McGimpsey) and promising newcomers (Stevie Howell, Aisha Sasha John) of the poetic genre. He depicts a literary institution pathologically averse to the sustenance of a traditional repertoire and addicted to the empty calories of poetic experiments. Television, too, falls prey to his jaundiced eye, from the militant sincerity of The Bachelorette to the receptacle of American anxieties that is The Walking Dead. But beyond passing judgment on the contemporary Literary Industrial Complex, Strike Anywhere acknowledges the inherent contradiction of poetic expression—that its power lies in its uselessness—and recognizes that poets are, nonetheless, the happy few, the unacknowledged legislators of the world. With thoughtfulness, wit and considerable humor, Michael Lista offers a refreshingly candid take on the moral and aesthetic implications of storytelling in all its forms, from boob-tube blockbusters to the latest volume of verse.
Download or read book Stage a Poetry Slam written by Marc Kelly Smith and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2009-04-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can I run my own slam? For groups large and small, from single events to recurring programs, Stage a Poetry Slam explains the easy way to make your slams a success. Stage a Poetry Slam is a comprehensive guide for both budding and seasoned Slammasters — people in charge of organizing and promoting poetry slams and spoken word events. Marc Kelly Smith, grand founder of the Slam movement and host of the original Uptown Poetry Slam, the one that started them all, takes you back stage to reveal the techniques and strategies he's crafted over his 20 years plus of developing world-class Slam shows. In Stage a Poetry Slam, Marc leads you through the process of shaping your own Slam from vision to opening night, as you discover how to... Fashion a crystal clear vision that drives the development of your first show Plan a detailed itinerary for a Slam extravaganza Scope out a venue that fits your vision Choose the right stage type for maximum impact Deal with the technical stuff — lights, mics, props, & drops Recruit and organize emcees, volunteers, and other support Discover talented performance poets and spoken word artists Publicize and promote your show to attract an eager audience Stage special shows for corporate and community events Take ownership of your show, so it doesn't get hijacked Negotiate fair compensation with club owners and other patrons of the arts Stage a Poetry Slam is packed with practical, world-tested advice on how to craft a compelling spoken word poetry event and promote in such a way to pack the seats and leave a line out to the streets. 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 you always have a place to visit to pick up ideas and talk shop with other Slammasters! Marc Kelly Smith—the father of the poetry slam himself—shares his experiences from thousands of shows to get readers started, covering everything, including finding a venue, lighting and sound, managing performers, even getting publicity. Stage a Poetry Slam is filled with insider tips, backstage advice, and examples that will wake up an audience and keep them coming back. You'll also be able to go online to the PoetrySpeaks.com community to listen to the samples, meet poets, and discover new inspirations. It's showtime! The ultimate guide for anyone who wants to run a slam or performance poetry show
