Spoken-word & Ireland’s Changing Flavour… an article

Here's an article I wrote for HUmag back in 2019 about the Irish spoken-word scene and some of the multiple cultures therein.. .

Call it what you will; spoken word, performance poetry, poetry, not poetry, the enfant terrible of the Irish poetic lexicon...whatever. It boils down to whatever moniker a writer-performer prefers to use. 

     That is, of course, arguable. It is part of an endless argument in fact (“What differentiates poetry and spoken word?”), one that too often reeks of elitist notions, and that will no doubt devour and renew itself until that fated day when the cows come home. These are far from the most pertinent or interesting of subjects to consider in regards the cultural phenomena that has been the Irish spoken-word scene; which has thrived despite (and because of) the social, political and cultural changes of the past two decades. The spoken-word scene continues to subvert, blur (and often obliterate) the lines between literary genres and between traditional sociological notions of 'high' and 'low' artistic culture. Its very existence is a challenge to the sanctity of such stiff definitions. This will always attract affray. Rightly so…

Read the full article on HUmag, here: https://humag.co/features/spoken-word-and-ireland-s-changing-flavour