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Spoken word involves performance-based poetry that focuses on the aesthetics of word play and story-telling, that originated from the poetry of African Americans in Harlem. It often includes collaboration and experimentation with other art forms such as music, theater, and dance. There is no mandatory manner in which to perform spoken word, however, certain aspects of the artistry indicate that it is, indeed, spoken word. Spoken word usually tends to focus on the performance of the words themselves, the dynamics of tone, gestures, facial expressions, and more. Performers can weave in poetic components - such as rhyme, repetition, slang, improvisation, and many more elements of poetry - to create an atmosphere for the audience to experience. In entertainment, spoken-word performances generally consist of storytelling or poetry, as exemplified by artists like Hedwig Gorski, Gil Scott-Heron and Léo Ferré, and by the lengthy monologues of Spalding Gray. ==History== The art of spoken word has existed for many millennia. The tradition of the spoken word is particular to cultures around the world when oral traditions were the means to pass on the genealogical, historical, cultural knowledge and traditions of different geographical sects of indigenous peoples and civilizations; it was particularly steeped in the African traditions that also included drumming and dancing as a means to reinforce cultural mores, spiritual incantations, social practices and world views. This can also be evidenced in Native American and Aboriginal cultures. The Ancient Greeks included Greek lyric which is similar to spoken-word poetry in their Olympic Games.〔("GREEK LYRIC" ) Retrieved 16-08-2014〕〔Glazner, Gary Mex. ''Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry''. San Francisco: Manic D, 2000.〕 Similar exercises were encouraged in political and social discourse in what was then an ancient and thriving form of democracy. Modern North American spoken-word poetry originated from the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance〔Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe (2007), ''Words in Your Face: a guided tour through twenty years of the New York City poetry slam.'' New York: Soft Skull Press. 400 pp. ISBN 1-933368-82-9〕 and blues music as well as the 1960s beatniks.〔Neal, Mark Anthony (2003). ''The Songs in the Key of Black Life. A Rhythm and Blues Nation.'' New York: Routledge. 214 pp. ISBN 0-415-96571-3〕 Modern-day spoken-word poetry became popular in the underground Black community in the 1960s with The Last Poets. The Last Poets was a poetry and political music group that was born out of the African-American Civil Rights movement.〔("last poet fragments". )〕 Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream," Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" and Booker T. Washington's "Cast Down Your Buckets" have changed and also shaped the course of history. The artistic utilization of the spoken-word genre in black culture today draws on and reflects a rich literary and musical heritage, and the interaction among these genres, as in the past, has produced some of America's best-known art pieces. Like Langston Hughes and writers of the Harlem Renaissance were inspired by the feelings of the blues and the black spiritual, contemporary hip-hop and slam poetry artists were inspired by poets such as Hughes in their use of word stylings. Similarly, the experimental and often radical statements of the Black Arts Movement developed a great energy with cutting-edge jazz and funk music that would expand the boundaries of black cultural persona, and thereby provide space for increasingly alternative political ideologies to be raised, discussed, and acknowledged.〔 Spoken-word poetry came more towards the mainstream in popularity a short time later when Gil Scott-Heron released his spoken-word poem ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'' on the album ''Small Talk at 125th and Lenox'' in 1970.〔(Ben Sisario, "Gil Scott-Heron, Voice of Black Protest Culture, Dies at 62", ) ''New York Times'', May 28, 2011.〕 In the meantime, artists from the rest of the world who came from a culture with a strong poetry tradition such as French singer-songwriters Léo Ferré or Serge Gainsbourg, made a personal use of spoken word over rock or symphonic music from the very beginning of the 1970s, in such albums as ''Amour Anarchie'' (1970), ''Histoire de Melody Nelson'' (1971) or ''Il n'y a plus rien'' (1973), and contributed to popularize this performing style in their cultural area without being related to the African American community or being influenced by its culture. In the late 1970s Los Angeles poet Wanda Coleman brought modern spoken-word poetry into written form with the release of her poetry collection ''Mad Dog, Black Lady'' in 1979 on Black Sparrow Press.〔(Wanda Coleman biography, Poetry Foundation. )〕 Many artists and poets have not published any of their works in book forms. Some use video and audio recording, the means used exclusively by Hedwig Gorski, who rejected what she called the "dull-drums" of book publishing in the 1980s.〔(Hedwig Gorski website. )〕 Spalding Gray's film ''Swimming to Cambodia'' is a well-known example of spoken word, with Gray sitting at a desk, talking about his experiences during the filming of ''The Killing Fields''. The Nuyorican Poets Café on New York's Lower Eastside was founded in 1973 and is one of the oldest American venues for presenting spoken-word poetry. The Nuyorican Poets Café in 1989 held the first documented poetry slam.〔("The History of Nuyorican Poetry Slam" ), Verbs on Asphalt.〕 On the West Coast Da Poetry Lounge and The World Stage are two of the oldest venues for spoken-word poetry, The World Stage presenting the more literary side of the spoken-word tradition and Da Poetry Lounge embracing the more performance side of it.〔(Amy Jo Nelson, "Spoken word poet Shihan inspires an awakening" ), ''Sonoma State Star'', September 26, 2011.〕 The Nuyorican Poets Café and Da Poetry Lounge have a close association with the poetry slam movement that was popularized by Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Lounge with both main hosts Bob Holman〔http://www.atlanticcenterforthearts.org/artresprog/resschedule/feb/b_holman.html〕 and Shihan〔(The Poetry Lounge (2004). )〕 appearing several times on the show. MTV Unplugged creator Robert Small featured Spoke Word artist on episodes of MTV Unplugged prior to Def Poetry Jam. Bob Holman hosted with artist such as Danny Hoch, Gil-Scott Heron and Maggie Estep and many others. The show was considered ground breaking. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「spoken word」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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