WARNING: This poem contains swear words and other possibly offensive language. You do not have to watch it if you don’t want to be exposed to that. It is NOT required. Please use your judgement.
The poet, Staceyann Chin, was the guest speaker at the City Tech Literary Arts Festival last year. Can Spoken Word Poetry be a good genre for serious issues? What are your reactions to this performance and poem?
Spoken word poetry can be a good genre for severe issues, depending on the subject. The subject can’t be too sensitive based on the audience. But overall, it is an excellent way to express your ideas, beliefs, and even a solution to a problem by being direct with the audience, like she did in the video. She gave concrete ideas and examples that paved the path toward her claim, which I believe is black women rasin like a Tsunami to take away what was taken without consent. This video was really interesting, and it hooked me based on how she expressed her writing.
I think that spoken word poetry would be a great way to discuss serious issues because what better way to tell a story than a voice. Storytellers were one of the oldest historians even if that history has been diluted and changed with each person it is passed to. The spoken word is the perfect medium to speak of the history of your past because it is a language which enables us to communicate with the world and how we can tell the world the story of a person or people without a voice.