The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry: Race, Identity, and the Performance of Popular Verse in America

Index

Index 179 academic culture, 39–43. See also academic poetry; of‹cial verse culture academic poetry: caricatures of, 41–42; public versus private issues , 40; tension with popular poetry , 22, 39–43 academic poetry readings, 3 academic verse. See academic poetry Academy of American Poets, 2 African American identity. See marginalized identity; performances of blackness “Age of Anxiety, The” (W. H. Auden ), 54 AIDS crisis, 27 Algarín, Miguel, 137 American Idol, 136 American popular culture, 8, 12, 14, 39–43 “Amethyst Rocks” (Saul Williams), 33, 110, 128 Andrews, Sekou. See Sekou tha Mis‹t antiracist identity, 85 antiwhite sentiment, 58, 59–60, 64–65, 102 Aptowicz, Cristin O’Keefe, 69, 154n23 argumentation and slam poetry, 26 Ashe, Krystal, 79 Association of Writers and Writing Programs, 1 Atlantic, 1 attitude of resistance: in Beat movement , 53–57; in Black Arts movement , 57–67; in blackface minstrelsy , 43, 48–49; in Def Poetry projects, 123; in popular poetry, 40–42, 66–67, 134; in slam poetry, 79, 134; in spoken word poetry, 132–33 Auden, W. H., 54 audience-as-critic, 5, 6, 20–21, 24, 134 Austin, J. L., 74, 109 authenticity: American popular culture and, 38; Beat movement and, 57, 66; Black Arts movement and, 66; black criminality and, 102; black identity and, 96–133; blackface minstrelsy and, 48, 66; connection with audience, 23; constructed nature of, 70, 161n3; criterion for success at poetry slams, 70–71; de‹nition of, 73, 161n3; Def Poetry projects and, 114–28; gender identity and, 75, 99; hip-hop and, 12, 101–5; identity and, 8; identity poem and, 70–73; marginalized identity and, 76–86, 94; performance and, 8, 70; race and illusion of, 98–99, 110, 113, 129, 133; results of, 70, 161n3; self and, 73–76; in Slam, 105–14; slam poetry and, 7–8, 12, 36–39, 76–86, 92, 134; soul and, 57. See also realness author: embodiment of, 17–18, 20, 69–71, 93; as performer, 32–33. See also authorship authorship: embodiment and, 17–18, 20, 69–71, 93; hyperawareness of, 9, 33; performances of, 18, 19–20, 32–38, 68; rules of poetry authorship (continued) slam regarding, 17, 32, 156n32; in team slam competition, 32 avant-garde poetry, 13, 40, 61, 134 Avery, C. R., 13 Back to Africa movement, 64 Badu, Erykah, 117, 118 Baraka, Amiri: “Black Art,” 60–62, 64; Black Arts Repertory Theatre /School (BART/S) and, 58–59; on Def Poetry, 117; name change to LeRoi Jones, 57; orthography of, 61; poetry slams, view of, 24 bards, 16 Barr, John, 136 BART/S (Black Arts Repertory Theatre /School), 58, 59, 63 Barthes, Roland, 34 Beat generation, 52 Beat movement, 51–57; academy, relationship with, 52, 135; anxiety and, 54–55; attitudes of resistance in, 53–57; authenticity and, 66; bebop and, 54; Black Arts movement and, 55, 57; black masculinity and, 55–56; blackness and alienation in, 53–56; black speech and, 55–56; cultural and historical moment of, 15; de‹nition of, 52; desire for blackness and, 55–57; diversity and, 53; Greenwich Village and, 51, 56; heroin culture and, 52, 55; hipster, ‹gure of, 55–56; intercultural exchange and, 53–57; jazz and, 52, 54–55; liminality and, 55; marijuana and, 56; nationalism and, 54; nonWestern culture and, 159n32; performance and, 52; performances of blackness in, 53–56; poetry readings and, 52–54; popular poetry and, 39; poverty and, 57; as precursor to poetry slam, 14; sexism and, 55; Six Gallery Reading and, 53–54; white middle-class culture and, 52, 54, 57; white Negro and, 55–56 Belly, 111, 113 Benjamin, Mark, 107 Bernie Mac Show, The, 122 Bernstein, Charles, 16, 39 Best American Poetry series, 2 Betts, Tara, 35–36 Bhabha, Homi, 158n19 “Black Art” (Amiri Baraka), 60–62, 64 black artists and white audiences, dynamic between, 42, 47, 66–67, 86, 129–33 Black Arts movement, 57–67; academy , relationship with, 59–60, 135; Afrocentrism, 64; Anglo-European aesthetics and, 59–60, 62; anti-Semitism, 61; antiwhite sentiment , 58, 59–60, 64–65; authenticity and, 66; avant-garde literature and, 65; Beat movement and, 55, 57; black aesthetics, 58; black cultural nationalism, 64–65; black power, 58; black working class and, 60, 62–63; cultural and historical moment of, 15; dialectic with audience, 62–63; distinction between “Negro” and “black” in, 65; feminism and, 61; Harlem Renaissance and, 59; homophobia, 61, 65; masculinity and, 61, 65; as mass art, 59, 62–63; middle class, relationship with...