Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution

By Alix Olson

Book Overview

Female spoken word artists have become the spokeswomen for a new generation. This demanding oral poetry of the early 21st century has defined a vanguard of lithely muscled voices, women who think and act decisively to create their distinctive and desperately earned realities. The combination of the eminent slam movement and the upsurge of bold underground feminism has created a unique pool of women who verbally challenge society on all fronts. Editor Alix Olson (internationally touring spoken word artist-activist) brought together a variety of astounding spoken word artists for Word Warriors . Included in this collection are Patricia Smith and Eileen Myles, two of our most formidable spoken-word foremothers, Tony-award winners Sarah Jones, Suheir Hammad and Staceyann Chin, recording artists Bitch and Lynn Breedlove from the dyke-punk band Tribe 8, award-winning writer Michelle Tea, and many more. These women join other amazing artists from many different backgrounds to create Word Warriors , a powerful and comprehensive collection of work from the best and brightest female spoken word artists today.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580052215
• ISBN13: 9781580052214
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Seal Press (CA)
• Length: 434 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

revolution-evolution

This book is inspiring poetry and enlightening personal essays by each amazing author. "Word Warriors" is a must read for every woman/daughter/mother/sister/friend. The poetry shines with clarity/panache/punch and all the ethereal beauty of "The Way Girls Word". Applause to Seal Press, the editors and visionaries who have presented not only a subculture of poetic performance but the power of transformation each author encountered by bringing their art to the public.

A Rock Concert on the Page

I wish that the poets had released a cd with this book to show the aurel beauty that each poet brings to her work. Last night I attended a reading in San Francisco, and I expected it to be good, however each of the women reading astonished me with her honesty, humor, anger, compassion...Each of these women has worked for years to arrive at the synthesis of grace and fire that more ordinary mortals scribbling in their diaries might only aspire toward. In the Q & A session afterwards, the poets spoke about traveling to small towns in the midwest while touring with spoken word poets, and how in tucked away places of the "red" map, like Wyoming, young girls would drive more than six hours and stay in a hotel in town to see them. In The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America Susan Faludi argues that masculinism and jingoism have silenced many of the feminists in culture, yet this collection highlights people who have been anything but quiet. They've manned the frontlines, articulately, intricately, loudly, boldly, and each should get credit for her contribution to national morale during this first bleak decade of the twenty-first century. To anyone interested in this work, the Feminist Press publishing this book is currently eliminating staff and struggling to stay alive, so I encourage anyone desiring evidence of the lyric beauty and inexorable heart drumbeat of the revolution to buy this collection....now!

Wonderful Collection!

Word Warriors is a beautiful and comprehensive collection. I am currently using it in my Freshman comp. class and the students are responding to the poetry with delight and enthusiasm!