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#98687 03/14/03 02:22 PM
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A school talent contest is coming up and I've been planning to do some performance poetry, but can't find any good examples to help me put together my own performance (I'm using my own poems) - does anyone have any suggestions/know of any websites?


#98688 03/14/03 03:15 PM
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Puppylet, before I make any assumptions (!) please explain what performance poetry is.


#98689 03/14/03 03:56 PM
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The kind I'm thinking of is a bit like a cross between a piece of stand-up comedy and a poetry reading - in that the poems are usually short, humorous and 'performed' (well, recited with a bit more feeling than one might get at some poetry readings). UKns may have heard similar things on BBC Radio3 and Radio4 such as The Heard and One Night Stanza.


#98690 03/14/03 04:02 PM
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OK, I'm getting there. Help this old lady out a little more: would it be like spoken opera, say? Or like beat poetry?

(I bet Whitman, Wordwind or Fiberbabe will be able to help you...)

#98691 03/14/03 04:19 PM
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You mean beat poetry as in stuff like rap, right? No, it's not like that, the poems are spoken - I'm not sure about spoken opera - wouldn't that be just like a play? I think stand-up comedy with poetry may be the best description for it, and it usually involves one person. (though occasionally you get more.)


#98692 03/14/03 04:27 PM
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Beat poets preceded rappers by about two generations. But anyway, I have a grasp now on what you want and will be thinking on it while we wait for our resident experts to opine.


#98693 03/14/03 04:35 PM
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The first name that pops to my mind (such as it is) is Allan Ginsburg.

http://homepage.svendborg-gym.dk/ot/AllanGinsburg/

Dig around, you might find some sound files.


#98694 03/14/03 05:30 PM
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maybe do a search for SLAM poetry. that's what that kind of event is known as, 'round here, anyways. a Poetry Slam.
pretty fun, and can be very exciting.



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#98695 03/16/03 03:58 PM
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In the secondary schools here in the US, this type of performance could be found in forensics, although from the description given here: http://www.seal-pa.org/admin/sasd/forensics/index.html
it appears that the poetry section is simulated reading. At any rate, the Slam poetry competitions probably are most like what you have in mind. Thanks to Stone Circle, a daughter who excelled in forensics, and her friends who are Slam poets, this old(er) lady knows exactly what you have in mind!


#98696 03/16/03 05:14 PM
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Dear bonzaialsatian: here's the URl to a poem many a schoolboy had to recite a hundred years ago:
http://endtimepilgrim.org/boystood.htm

So jmany in fact, that I first encountered it in a parody.


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