Title: Languaging in Hampton Roads
Episode 6: Creative Community: Spoken Word in Hampton Roads
Hosts: Jill Winkowski and Prue Salasky
Date: June 30, 2024
Length: 35:59 minutes
In this sixth episode of our podcast, languagingHR, we explore the world of spoken word poetry in Hampton Roads. To understand when spoken word poetry is and its nuances, we interviewed three local poets, Tanya Cunningham, George Mendez, and Lacroy Nixon. We asked them questions such as: What is spoken word poetry?, How do you connect with your audience?, What do you love about the art form?, and What is SLAM poetry?
Each of the poets perform one of their pieces during this episode. Tanya performs “Bread,” George performs, “The Nature of Things,” and Lacroy performs “Play by Play.”
Spoken word poetry is the performance of original poetry in a spoken word community and sometime for competition. Poems are usually personal in nature and the performance of them is essential to the art form. The poets that we interviewed come to poetry with their unique perspectives and backgrounds.
George, who had his own hip-hop label in his teens, came to spoken word poetry through writing at a young age and journeying through music to the spoken word format. He had been the host of the open mic at The Venue on 35th Street for many years and is now artist-in-residence there.
Lacroy was encouraged to write by a high school teacher after she asked if she could read his work to the class. He had been focusing on mechanical engineering at that time and went on to compete in a national NAACP competition in the categories of poetry and, yes, mechanical engineering. Lacroy started and runs the nonprofit SLAM Connection in Williamsburg, which combines spoken word poetry events and workshops with service to the community. He is also a competing member of the SLAM team Verbbenders.
Tanya Cunningham was a writer early on and later took a creative writing class with Dr. Hollis Pruitt at Tidewater Community College. For the final project, the students read their work aloud. Dr. Pruitt invited guests to that reading and one of those guests was poet Ann Shalaski. Tanya kept reading at open mics to continue the connection with community that was fostered during that class. Tanya is co-editor with J. Scott Wilson of 757 Perspectives, an anthology of local poetry.
Although this podcast focused on more general language themes such as audience and language community, we did learn some new terms. We highlighted three of those during the episode: scheming, or the use of an underlying theme to foreground story; deep pockets, which is a term for a spoken word poet that has a number of poems (at least eight!) ready to perform at any time; and finally, the term calibration poet, which describes the poet that goes first in a SLAM competition.
Note: We referred to Joshua Bennett’s book Spoken Word: A Cultural History. Knopf, 2023.
757 Perspectives, Volumes I and II, eds, J Scott Wilson and Tanya Cunningham are available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Information about the non-profit, SLAM Connection, is available online at https://slamconnection.my.canva.site/ and their email is Slamconnectionwbg@gmail.com
A few local open mics (correct as of June 28, 2024):
Where: The Venue at 35th St. (@thevenueon35th), 631 W. 35th St., Norfolk
When: Regular free events throughout the week
Where: Column 15 Cafe and Roastery, 701-R Merrimac Trail, Williamsburg
When: First Fridays Open Mic Nights; doors open at 6:30 p.m. Free
Hosted by Slam Connection (@slamconnection), slamconnectionwbg@gmail.com
Where: Cure Coffeehouse, 503 Botetourt St., Norfolk
When: First Thursdays, 6-7:30 p.m. Free
Where: Downing Gross Cultural Arts Center (www.downinggross.org), Newport News
When: Second Tuesdays, 7 p.m. Free
Where: The Muse Writers Center, 2200 Colonial Ave, #3, Norfolk; 757-818-9880 (the-muse.org)
When: Frequent events and performances