ABSTRACT
Spoken word merges with other disciplines, influencing the styles and techniques used. Music, especially hip-hop, is a particularly strong contemporary influence. The history of slam and blending musicality with poetry are briefly charted and critiqued. Traditional forms can be used to explore the humour of contemporary, everyday situations, while freeform approaches may mix poetry with elements of stand-up and theatre, blending humour with more serious topics. This overlaps with immersive solo and small-group shows and micro-theatre, with some practitioners embedding elements of ‘sound poetry’ in their work. Others use constrained writing techniques such as univocalism to produce humour, pathos and absurdism from the restricted vocabulary. Similarly, Dadaist writing may generate found poems, selecting content randomly or using rigid criteria with minimal or no editing. Experimental writing pushes the boundaries of what can be performed while still engaging an audience, and overlaps with fine art. Innovative approaches highlight contemporary issues through techniques such as the application of technology, adoption of non-human voices in ecopoetry, the use of threatened or marginalised languages and dialects, and focusing on forms beyond the Western tradition. The outcome is a diverse and evolving scene from the niche to the mainstream.
