Sibling rivalries: literary poetry versus spoken word: why does the divide exist and what does it mean?

Black Issues Book Review, March-April, 2004 by Quraysh Ali Lansana

"The best work lasts, no mailer who writes it, or what it's called. And if you go back and read some literary criticism from, say, eighty years ago, it will be very evident that most critics don't have a clue. This has always been true and always will be. It took over a hundred years before Shakespeare's plays were considered 'literature; and if they missed Shakespeare, they can miss anybody."

Many spoken-word artists believe their power is in the immediacy of their message. Many literary poets tout aesthetic resonance. Why does this chasm exist, and do the poets themselves perpetuate this divide? Is it healthy for poetry?

How has the commercial success of Def Poetry Jam on Broadway and its sister television series on HBO affected today's black poetry? BIBR queried a number of poets across the country and from various sides of the issue. Their collective conversation speaks volumes.

Naomi Long Madgett, poet and founder of Lotus Press, Detroit:

If by "spoken word" you mean performance poetry, there is often a chasm between that and academic poetry, or I prefer to call it "literary poetry:' They are really two different genres, and I would not judge one to be any better than the other; they're just different. Performance poetry is entertainment that does not require much thought to be appreciated or much time for subtle meanings. Spoken poetry was the earliest literature before most people could read and before the invention of the printing press. It is extremely popular in a way that literary, poetry will probably never be. Much depends on its delivery, and seldom does it stand on its own on the printed page.

Andrea Grant, Copious magazine, Vancouver, Canada:

Spoken word brings poetry to life and makes it more accessible to people in our modern times. It's a continuation of the oral traditions and storytelling of our ancestors. However, the written and the oral are two halves of a whole. It's just easier these days to convince someone to listen to a CD than to read a poem, because reading poetry has a scholastic stigma of being boring.

Harryette Mullen, poet and professor at the University of California at Los Angeles:

Who is an academic poet? An officer, staff worker or member of the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Society of America or a similar literary organization? A poet whose work has been awarded a prize or is in some way recognized by such an organization? A poet who has attended college? A poet who has attended an Ivy League college? A poet with a degree in creative writing or literature? A poet who has participated in a workshop sponsored by an educational institution? A poet who teaches or has taught college-level creative writing or literature courses? A poet whose creative and/or critical writing is published by a university press or in university-sponsored periodicals? A poet whose work is studied in college courses or is the subject of reviews, articles and books by critics and scholars in academic journals? A poet whose work requires a dictionary to read it? A poet who thinks "spoken-word" poetry is boring?