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The cultural phenomenon known as slam poetry was born some twenty years ago in white working-class Chicago barrooms. Since then, the raucous competitions have spread internationally, launching a number of annual tournaments, inspiring a generation of young poets, and spawning a commercial empire in which poetry and hip-hop merge.

The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry is the first critical book to take an in-depth look at slam, shedding light on the relationships that slam poets build with their audiences through race and identity performance and revealing how poets come to celebrate (and at times exploit) the politics of difference in American culture.

With a special focus on African American poets, Susan B. A. Somers-Willett explores the pros and cons of identity representation in the commercial arena of spoken word poetry and, in doing so, situates slam within a history of verse performance, from blackface minstrelsy to Def Poetry. What's revealed is a race-based dynamic of authenticity lying at the heart of American culture. Rather than being mere reflections of culture, Somers-Willett argues, slams are culture—sites where identities and political values get publicly refigured and exchanged between poets and audiences.

Introduction: Slam and the Search for Poetry’s Great Audience ...1
CHAPTER ONE On Page and Stage: Slam Poetry as a Genre ...16
CHAPTER TWO Poetry and the People: The Cultural Tensions of American Popular Verse in Performance ...39
CHAPTER THREE I Sing the Body Authentic: Slam Poetry and the Cultural Politics of Performing Identity ...68
CHAPTER FOUR “Commercial Niggas Like Me”: Spoken Word Poetry, Hip-Hop, and the Racial Politics of Going Mainstream ...96
Epilogue: “Designs for Living”—Notes on the Future of Slam Poetry ...134
APPENDIX
Document 1: The Of‹cial Rules of National Poetry Slam Competition ...141
Document 2: The Of‹cial National Poetry Slam “Emcee Spiel” ...149
Document 3: The Of‹cial National Poetry Slam Instructions for Judges ...150
Notes ...153
Bibliography ...169
Index ...179