Argumentative Essay On Spoken Word Poetry

Alizia Foster

Mrs. Caffey

English 102

8 May 2014

Each year, Holbrook High School holds a poetry café. During this event, many young adults have the opportunity to get up and perform for their peers. This past year, a plethora of young adults choose to perform spoken word poetry. In today’s generations, that has changed. Spoken word poetry is a necessity to openly discuss the issues that affect today’s youth.

Spoken word poetry allows young adults to deal with issues of gang violence. Two young men by the names of Nate Marshall and Demetrius Amaparan recite a spoken word poem “Lost Count: A love story” because of several children deaths that occurred in their neighborhood that year. “Though Marsalls mother worried about his long commute

In some cases, one parent leaves causing the reaming parent to have to fill the spot of the missing parent. In the poem “Spelling father” by Marshall Jones, a young man is telling a story about a dream he had. In his dream he went back to when he was a little kid. He was on stage at a spelling bee and was asked to spell the word father. In Jones poem, he recites the verse: “I stood there and spelled out M-O-T-H-E-R”. Giving us a perfect example of the experience of a kid growing up and the mother had to do everything that the father was supposed to

Spoken word poetry isn’t just written down on paper. Spoken word is performed allowing two things, one: The audience can feel the real emotions the reader wants them to, and two: the poem writer is developing a voice.

“….Louder Than a Bomb poetry even and heard students from all across our city and the Chicago land region putting their words out there for everyone to hear that I realized the true power of spoken word poetry. (Dave Stleber)

Louder Than a Bomb is an organization that is allowing students to perform in front of an audience. This is giving these students an opportunity to find their voice. Myra Robinson a participant of Louder Than a Bomb said, “Being on the poetry team has helped me to find my voice.” (Myara Robinson) Spoken word poetry is a very powerful performing art. Yes, you can write it down so people can read it. The power of spoken word poetry comes from the performance. When the poet is performing their poem and putting there emotions into it when they are reading it, the impact is so much greater. The power of spoken word has reached today’s young adults. They are using it to deal with gang violence, allowing them to deal with real life issues such as divorce and last but not least, young adults use it to find their