The Spoken Word Poetry Scene

The spoken word poetry scene comes out of New York City’s history as the home of creative freedom, a battleground for self expression, the birthplace of social and political movements where its busy streets and avenues served as a platform for voices to be heard. The Feminist Movement, the Black Panthers and Young Lords organizations of the late sixties, exercised their First Amendment right, coming up with clever ways of expressing their discontent. This boisterous verbal presentation of words paved a way for a new artistic genre to emerge known as The Spoken Word.
A new generation reaffirms the tenacity and spirit of those movements by fusing poetry with prose and jazz. Throw in a dash of hip hop combined with a flow and you have spoken word poetry that hypnotizes its audience. You can find a young poet passionately spitting (speaking) on a mic numerous venues in New York on any given night of the week.
The iconic Nuyorican Poets Café on Manhattan’s lower eastside is one of New York City’s premiere spoken word poetry venues. A spoken word poetry competition, known as the “Slam”, is held every Friday night. Poets come from all over for the chance to be inducted into an elite group of poets by becoming the next Nuyorican Slam Champion.
The Nexus Lounge, located on the corner of 1st Street in the East Village, houses the Inspired Word open mic, where all are encourage to share their spoken word poetry every Tuesday night at 7pm. In contrast to the Nuyorican, The Inspired Word offers a more intimate atmosphere with two featured performances by guest poets. New York has a diverse spoken word community filled with talented poets that capture the heart and soul of this city. That makes the experience of listening to each spoken word poetry performance that much more unique.