Description
Book SynopsisKilling Poetry examines the performance of race as it relates to gender, sexuality, and class in the spoken word communities of Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. Javon Johnson, a renowned slam poet himself, focuses on how slam poets navigate the diverse poetry scenes in which they perform, as part of the larger world they encounter as Black Americans.
Trade Review"Javon Johnson provides an eloquent argument on a very important subject.
Killing Poetry will make a significant contribution to black performance history." -- Omi Osun Joni L. Jones * author of Theatrical Jazz: Performance, Àse, and the Power of the Present Moment *
"With thick description and deeply personal and political prose, Johnson's
Killing Poetry provides a rich opportunity for us to explore a world of competitive art-making hidden to most.
Killing Poetry's dynamic attention to the specific racial, gendered, sexual, and geographic valences in the spoken word community, means that it is unrelenting in its practice of 'deep listening' and complex thinking. Javon Johnson transfers his truly gifted eye as a spoken word and creative artist, to the critical work of studying performance and its other attendants." -- Jeffrey Q. McCune, Jr. * author of Sexual Discretion: Black Masculinity and the Politics of Passing *
Table of ContentsPreface
1 Let The Slam Begin: History, Method, and Beyond
2 “This DPL, Come On!”: Black Manhood in the Los Angeles Slam and Spoken Word Scene
3 SlamMasters: Toward Creative and Transformative Justice
4 Button Up: Viral Poetry and Rethinking the Archives
5 Conclusion: “That Is the Slam, Everybody”
Acknowledgments
Glossary
Index
References
