citement around the movement. Morris won the
Nuyorican Grand Slam Champion title in 1993 and
soon after became a creative writing professor at
multiple universities, including Sarah Lawrence
College. In 1994, Algarín and Holman published
Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, which fea-
tured pieces by the founding poets and new poets. It
won the 1994 American Book Award. Saul Williams,
an actor by training, won the Nuyorican Grand Slam
Champion title in 1996, and this led to a film and
music career.Slam, an independent film starring
Williams, came out in 1998 and won the critics over.
It was awarded the Cannes Camera d’Or and the
Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize. Spoken
word had already been a topic of interest at
Sundance in the form of a previous year’s entry,Love
Jones, featuring Larenz Tate as a spoken word artist
who woos a Chicago woman.
During the last part of the decade, spoken word
began to permeate popular culture in general. Lines
with typical spoken word intonation could even be
heard in commercials for fast food and popular soft
drinks, leading some poets to criticize the insularity
of the spoken word movement and the tendency of
poets to read their work in the same fashion. Soon,
“anti-slams” began to appear, some of which gave
awards for the worst poems read. Nevertheless, the
spoken word movement did not lose steam. Not only
did national slam venues multiply all over the
United States, poetry venues of all kinds multiplied,
and spoken word artists came out in record num-
bers. It is now common to find poetry venues in the
New England states and the Southwest. Famous art-
ists also took on the art form. For example, Jello
Biafra, former lead singer of the punk band the
Dead Kennedys, and Henry Rollins produced multi-
ple spoken word albums in the 1990’s. Spoken word
was featured on television shows as well. The comedy
sketch series In Living Colorregularly featured a
character who would spout verse. Even MTVReal
Worldcontestants in Hawaii could be expected to ut-
ter a few verses at a party.
Impact The lyrical verse of poets like Gil Scott-
Heron and Miguel Piñero inspired working-class
leaders in Chicago, San Francisco, and New York to
create a national community that could revive poetry
into a living art accessible to everyone. Slam poetry,
spoken word venues, performance art, and the pub-
lishing, film, music, and advertising industries merged
into a movement that transformed popular culture.
Spoken word poetry is applauded overseas in coun-
tries like France and Germany, even if audiences do
not understand the language in which it is per-
formed; the African, Latino, and jazz/Beat rhythms
in the poetry help to create a universal language. Ed-
ucation programs in large cities place spoken word
artists in classrooms in order to teach students writ-
ing and oratory skills. Hip-hop producer Russell
Simmons banked on the movement and created the
Home Box Office (HBO) program Def Poetry Jam,
which features spoken word. This multicultural move-
ment has resonated into the twenty-first century.
Further Reading
Algarín, Miguel, and Bob Holman, eds.Aloud: Voices
from the Nuyorican Poets Café. New York: Henry
Holt, 1994. An award-winning collection of po-
ems from 145 poets.The Nineties in America Spoken word movement 799
Marc Smith, who started the first poetry slam in Chicago, recites in
August, 1998, in Austin, Texas.(AP/Wide World Photos)