Remember, you must never take other people’s stories: write what you’ve lived, what you know. The least I can do is talk about the realities of being beaten up for being gay in front of people who don’t accept where their hate may lead or even just give them a love poem, to make them see for two minutes that my love is no different and moves them no less.īeing white, with the chance to speak to many other white people, I won’t write about racism. There are incredibly courageous poets, worldwide, who are fighting for political change. I’ve performed at secretive lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) nights in countries where we have had to have security on the door to keep us safe, unable to market the events beyond very careful word of mouth. There are underground feminist spoken word scenes in countries where protest is illegal. I do this because I truly believe spoken word can change things. There is responsibility that comes with being given a stage: what do you do with that chance? If I wanted to be an entertainer, I’d have gone into a better-paying industry. I travel through a lot of places where this certainly isn’t safe to speak about, and where it isn’t accepted, even in the UK. Singer-songwriters get talked over and comedians get heckled, but spoken word poets experience the extreme privilege of being given the space to be truly heard.
Spoken word writer professional#
You don't need to be a professional anyone can speak at an open mic night. The true force of spoken word is that it is the only genre where anyone at all can say what they want to an audience of strangers and be listened to in silence. We move you, you move us back, and together everyone leaves feeling different, fired up. Spoken word is an exchange between writer and listener. We stand on a stage and hope to make you feel something: laughter, anger, sadness, or the desire to leap into action. Spoken word, performance poetry, and slam poetry are slightly different things, depending on who you’re asking, but they all have the same goal. I’m now lucky enough to earn my living through touring the world performing my poems, my three spoken word theatre shows, and writing commissions. I must be one of the few people who ever entered spoken word for the money. One friend told me that the next night in a neighbouring town, there was a poetry competition, something called a slam, with a cash prize. The result took longer than ten minutes, but it wasn’t awful.
Spoken word writer series#
One night, watching old episodes of a spoken word TV series with friends, I said, after one admittedly terrible poem had aired, 'I could do better than that in less than ten minutes.' My mates were tired of such arrogance, and handed me a pen and paper. Several years ago, I was stuck with no work and fast-dwindling grocery money.
Spoken word writer how to#
Award-winning slam poet and teaching artist Sophia Walker gives advice on how to become a better writer.
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