Comment on this article

RANDOM URBAN STATIC: The Iridescent Equations of Spoken Word
An Original Feature Length Spoken Word Poetry Documentary
Running Time 2 hours
DVD written and directed by Bob Bryan produced by Loida Bryan
Bryan World Productions POB 74033 Los Angeles, CA 90004
Review by Nancy Shiffrin copyright 2008

Words that pop! Words that crackle! Words that explode! Words that weep! Words that sing and chant the urban poet's agonies and dreams. Spoken Word is an art form that harkens back to the oral and musical origins of poetry, the time before words were written down, the time when story-tellers spoke for the people and had to remember their lines. Here are 15 performers, griots, prophets. It's not that they reject the page, only one, Mollie Angelheart, claims not to read or write, and she has help writing down the words. It's that, as Rachel Kann points out, they came along as Rapp and Hip Hop, which themselves derive in part from children's street games, from “doin' the dozens”, from a black male culture which seeks to assert its power (sometimes ill-advisedly) in the face of extreme oppression and exploitation, came to dominate popular consciousness. In fact, the DVD shows most of the artists working with the page before they come to the mike. Because it contains a critique of the violence and sexism in Hip Hop, as well as analysis of the role of Hip Hop and Spoken Word poetry in the culture, this DVD is to be recommended as a classroom tool for writers and artists going into classrooms to share their visions and for classroom teachers who want to provoke a discussion.

These artists COMMUNICATE big-time.

“Black mens' strength and redemption lies in their vulnerability,” Tim'M T. West asserts. Vulnerability black and white, male and female, regardless of is the power of this artistic effort. West talks about being educated, about degrees in Women's and Gender Studies, philosophy and modern thought, about coming out of the closet, finally dropping out of Stanford's Ph.D. Program after finding out he's HIV positive. His epiphany, that he didn't want to write “brilliant” academic articles, that he wanted to write for his mother. Ironically, using the Hip Hop rhythm, he asks for more rhythmic variety in the medium. In general, the men here convey their power through a kind of self-lessness. Sekou (tha misfit) captures the looniness of infatuation with “7th Grade Girl”; other men talk about suicide, immigration, obsessive compulsive behavior, using art in the classroom and in counseling situations. They also speak positively about nature, the cosmos, collective and individual responsibility.

The late diarist, novelist and theorist of the creative life, Anais Nin, observed that while men may have to lose their egos, even their self-hood for awhile to create, women must first construct a self. Thirty years later, that still seems to be the case. The women here assert their power, through they are still fighting stereotypes of female beauty. Natalie Patterson talks about her “Fat Girl Jeans”; she and Mollie Angelheart do a wonderful collaborative piece about anorexia and bulimia, a wonderful way for them to resolve differences that arose between them. These women deal with their bodies. I love it (in another piece) when Mollie wonders whether her aborted baby will get another chance at existence. The Lindz cries out “I'm not heart-broken” when told of a life threatening cardiac condition. Rachel Kann interrogates standards of beauty. Her cosmetology will come from the cosmos. Bridget Gray asks the men to stop calling themselves “niggah” and “boy” and to stop calling her “bitch and whore”. Her “Letter to Hip Hop” expresses grief at the “pimpin” culture.

And Mollie Angelheart reminds us to “choose love”.

 


Return to:

[New] [Archives] [Join] [Contact Us] [Poetry in Motion] [Store] [Staff] [Guidelines]