Spoken Word Movement
Spoken word started centuries ago in Ancient Greece. It was performed as a sport in their Olympics! Modern-day spoken-word poetry became popular in the underground Black community in the 1960s with The Last Poets, who were a poetry group who addressed political issues during the Civil Right Movement. Black history holds an abundance of speakers with inspiring things to say, and exciting ways to say them. The greatest of these speakers inject plenty of emotion. Though mere words, speeches made by influential men like Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream," Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a woman?" and Booker T. Washington's "Cast down your buckets" have changed and also shaped the course of history. Now Spoken Word is often associated with hip-hop culture, and has strong ties to storytelling, modern poetry, post-modern performance, and monologue theatre, as well as jazz, blues, and folk music. Spoken Word is poetry intended for onstage performance with high energy and powerful expression.