LIP SMACK:
A HISTORY OF SPOKEN WORD POETRY IN DC
By Kim Roberts
Beltway Editions, 2010
A timeline of major spoken word events in Washington, DC from 1991 to 2010. Published in partnership with The Word Works, Inc. and the Humanities Council of Washington, DC.
Spoken word is a literary art designed for performance, and Washington, DC is one of several cities at the forefront of the development of the form. DC is notable for its national contributions in several areas: we were a model for the development of youth poetry slams, for organizations that nurtured women performers in particular, and for the range and number of reading series that have taken place here. DC remains the only city in the United States to offer monetary grants to support hip hop arts and culture.
Lip Smack begins with the early 1990s, when the term “spoken word” came into regular use. (Prior to that, the phrase was most often used to describe a category at the Grammy Awards for any text recording, which could include poetry, comedy, or storytelling.) Several of the same performers who identified as “performance poets” in the 1970s and 1980s began calling themselves “spoken word artists” in the 1990s. No art movement begins in a vacuum, and spoken word is no different. In fact, the greatest strength of the form is its amazing flexibility, its ability to incorporate many influences and cultures. This debt to past performers is acknowledged briefly in the final section on forebears and mentors.
