Performance poetry is a type of poetry performed for an audience, often composed spontaneously. It has grown in popularity since the 1980s and is connected to ancient oral traditions. Devices such as rhymes and alliteration aid memorization, and percussion and body language are important in modern performance poetry. It is classified as literature by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Performance poetry is a type of poetry that is performed for an audience. The poem can be written in advance, or it can be composed spontaneously while the performance is underway. It is different from reading poems written for the printed page aloud. This type of poetry has grown and fallen in popularity over the years. The most recent revival began in the United States in the 1980s with the onset of open mic nights and poet slams, which are competitions for performance poets.
In some way, performance poetry, sometimes known as the spoken word, is connected to oral traditions that date back to ancient times before the written word. In these cases, the poem, or story, was handed down orally to each generation. They then added their own twists and styles of performance into the story so that each performance was unique. As these poems or stories were meant to be memorized, certain devices were used to aid this process and are still used today. Some of these include the use of rhymes, alliteration – where multiple words begin with the same letter – and kennings – where a phrase, often poetic, can be substituted for a name in a poem.
Percussion is also important in performance poetry. The modern style was influenced by hip-hop, which uses all these devices. This type of poem should also have an idea, emotion, or perspective that drives the poem. Often, this can relate to popular culture or social or political events. Performance poets also often incorporate aspects of their personal lives into their performances.
The poet’s use of gestures or body language while performing the poem is also important. This may be related to an earlier form of performance poetry, where theatrical events were the venue for this type of art. Music can also be part of performance poetry; for example, Beat poet Allen Ginsberg often incorporated spoken word with jazz. While performance poetry cannot be captured for mass audiences in the same way as a written poem, audio recordings have made it more accessible to more people.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in the United States classifies performance poetry as literature rather than visual art. This is largely because the performance is all about rhetoric and language. There are national performance poetry competitions, and the NEA offers programs dedicated to teaching this type of poetry.
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