A vibrant cultural history.

Other than a few cursory nods to Allen Ginsberg, Bennett doesn’t contend with the legacy of the Beat poets. There’s no reference to the so-called dub poets.

Bennett’s book is much more than a history: it’s a living poetic meditation on his own life as a poet and the lives of pathbreaking if largely ignored poets who did spoken word even before that moniker had been invented.

For [Bennett], spoken word isn't interesting because it won the culture war against stuffy academics and their dusty canons; the value of spoken word lies in how it reared and continues to nurture its own culture. And in his view, that heritage of autonomy and aegis should shape how people understand it. Bennett, a repeat slam champion who writes poetry and criticism, has intimate knowledge of his subject but approaches it with humility and imagination. He threads research, interviews, autobiography, and close readings of poems and related texts into a nonlinear jaunt through the spoken word archives.

Composed in dynamic, interlocking scenes, the story unfolds effortlessly despite the scholarly rigor and research evident in the writing.

Bennett underscores the importance of clubs, cafes, poetry slams, and open mics in providing opportunities for spoken word poets to share their work and discover a sense of community.