ABSTRACT
When Glenn Carmichael set up the poetry slam in 1994 he didn’t know that this would feed into a growing interest in spoken word in the city. The Poetry Slam and other spoken word nights in Bristol enabled poets to express political feelings and emotional experiences in a non-threatening, supportive atmosphere. At the peak of its popularity the Bristol Poetry Slam attracted audiences of over 200 and there was a huge variety of poetry events across the city.
This chapter explores the progression of spoken word in Bristol from its early beginnings in the 1980s and those heady slam days, to the wide-ranging and lively scene of today with current ‘empires’ such as Raise The Bar, Milk, Blahblahblah and Hammer and Tongue. This chapter examines the democratisation of poetry and the role of the audience in promotion. It asks what is the future of Spoken Word in Bristol and is the current scene as democratic as it claims?
