Page "Spoken word" Paragraph 11

Since its inception, the spoken word has been an outlet for people to release their views outside the academic and institutional domains of the university and academic or small press.

The spoken word and its most popular offshoot, slam poetry, evolved into the present day soap-box for people, especially younger ones, to express their views, emotions, life experiences or information to audiences.

The views of spoken word artists encompass frank commentary on religion, politics, sex and gender, often taboo subjects in the world of contemporary academic poetry.