MTV, in free verse: “Word” pushes at poetry’s borders
USA Today (date unknown)
Last year, MTV’s Unplugged series plugged into the growing interest in poetry with a half-hour special called Spoken Word. And the Word became fresh.
Tonight, Spoken Word returns with new, back-to-back half hours, starting at 8 p.m. ET/PT. This time, says Unplugged co-creator Bob Small, Spoken Word will speak to more than just poetry lovers.
“This one is poets and performers” whose “poems” don’t fit the traditional rhythm and rhyme, says Small. “They’ve taken writing and acting and music and created their own form.”
Some of the performers use musical accompaniment, like Maggie Estep, in her thumping Sex Goddess of the Western Hemisphere. Some weave comedy into an unstructured monologue, like Eric Bogosian, one of the better known of tonight’s performers, whose play in New York have drawn critical acclaim.
The readings–performed in front of an intimate group like other Unplugged concerts–also broaches a range of issues. Jim Carroll mourns the loss of grunge rocker Kurt Cobain; veteran poet Gil-Scott Heron laments the “military and the monetary” that drive U.S. government policy and Hal Sirowitz mocks the obsessive bent of his mother in a fit of Woody Allen-esque neurosis.
Spoken Word builds on today’s poetry revival, which has flourished in the new crop of coffee houses across the country.
“It’s finally shaken the stigma of being retro–Jack Kerouac,” says Small. “It’s proven it’s here to stay.”
The evening begins in a reflective mood, with Rapper MC Lyte’s letter to her biological father. In the candid monologue, MC Lyte reveals hermost tender side, which–as she writes to her father–doesn’t come through in her rap image.
But the performance that may create the most buzz is Revolution Ain’t No X-Cap, by Danny Hoch.
“Everyone who’s seen it has been blown away,” says Small. Hoch, who’s performed in a one-man show in New York and works with prison inmates, unleashes a criticism of the black community for playing into white society’s material traps–all in a zestily written take-off of rap.
“I would love to work with this guy (Hoch) again,” says Small. And the opportunity should come; Small hopes to spin off Spoken Word into its own weekly series.