When people think of poetry, they often think of dead white guys. Rock Star Poet is about advancing the idea of poetry beyond the dead white guys.

Mostly, I like to focus on modern poetry to show that it’s a living art. But, sometimes, it’s good to pay homage to those who are no longer with us.

Oscar Brown Jr. has appeared on Rock Star Poet before. I included a video of one of his Def Poetry Jam performances in my post about that television show.

Alas, Brown passed away in 2005, which means that he won’t be producing anymore of his incredible poetry. However, he inspired a generation of American poets—African-American and otherwise—and the work he produced in his life time remains relevant and powerful.

While much of his work focused on black civil rights, the broader themes of his poetry—fear, persecution, anger about the state of the world—can be appreciated by nearly anyone, regardless of race, colour, or creed.

Editor’s note: Sorry for incluing “I Apologize” again, instead of another poem that I haven’t published here before. I was going to include Brown’s poem “This Beach,” but the only video I could find had serious audio problems, so I opted to re-share this piece, instead.

As a fairly geeky white guy, I find myself particularly drawn to other geeky white guys who do cool things. One such geeky white guy is George Watsky.

Watsky has perfected the geek rock image and brought it to the world of performance poetry. He’s hilarious, non-threatening, and he’s appeared on Def Poetry Jam. If only poetry were as popular as rock music, he’d have millions of adoring teenage girls hanging posters of him on their bedroom walls.

Alas, poetry has not yet reached that level of popularity in Western culture, so I’ve got to play the part of the screaming teenage girl here and let you all know about George Watsky and his kick ass poetry.

According to his bio, he’s got a list of achievements to back-up the rock star status I’m throwing upon him:

Watsky was featured on Season 6 of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO. He was the 2006 Youth Speaks Grand Slam Poetry Champion, 2006 Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Champion, and performed in a record six consecutive Youth Speaks Grand Slam Finals. The last three of those audiences, all topping out at over 3,000, were the largest ever for poetry slams anywhere in the world. In 2009 Watsky was one of three poets who performed live on FOX at the NAACP Image Awards in honor of Russell Simmons’ lifetime achievement award.

So there you go. George Watsky: geeky white poet. He’s like the Weezer of performance poetry—geeky, but in an awesome rock star kind of way.

I’m into the 3rd week writing this blog and, until now, I’ve yet to feature a female poet. That’s not because women can’t rock just as well (if not better) than men. It’s just because, well, I honestly don’t know a lot of female poets.

Today, I end the absense of female poets on Rock Star Poet by sharing some videos of a woman I just recently learned about: Madya del Valle.

This woman rocks. According to her bio, she’s done a lot in just a few short years, including:

• Being an original cast member and writer on the Tony award winning production of Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, as well as being featured on 6 episodes of the TV show.
• Winning the Individual National Poetry Slam Championship in Seattle, becoming the first poet from the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, the youngest poet ever, and the first Latina person to win the award.

She’s done a hell of a lot more, too, but you’ll have to check out her bio for that.

Since I don’t know too much about del Valle (having only recently discovered her), I’ll end the post here, and let her speak for herself.

One of the first true rock star poets that I ever had the pleasure of seeing is Shane Koyczan.

I saw him perform on the now defunct CBC arts program ZeD. I don’t remember what poem he performed on the show, but I remember being in awe of what Koyczan did with words. It was the first I knew of slam poetry.

I don’t think I was actively writing poetry at that point. It wouldn’t be until few months later, when I heard Charles Bukowski being played on the local university radio station, CJSR, that I would become interested in writing poems. But Kocyzan made me interested in hearing what other people wrote.

Note that I said “hearing” not “reading.” Suddenly, poetry was a living thing. It was a modern thing. Poetry wasn’t some old-fashioned art form that existed only in books. It was in the air.

A few months later, also on ZeD, I would see Koyczan perform again, this time as part of TOFU—Tons of Fun University—with CR Avery and Mighty Mike McGee. Poets can form bands, I thought, holy shit!

Shane Koyczan and TOFU were my first introductions to spoken word/performance poetry. If I hadn’t been watching TV at midnight on a weeknight during my first or second year of university, I might not appreciate rock star poets the way that I do today. So I give thanks for Shane Koyczan and for the CBC. Without them, this blog might not exist.

One of the greatest promotors of modern poetry—particularly African-American poetry—is Def Poetry Jam.

Def Poetry Jam has done a lot to help make poetry more mainstream. The show often highlights rock star type poets: those poets who know how to put on a show, while still speaking meaningful words. Unfortunately, HBO Canada doesn’t appear to broadcast the show. But then, I don’t have the money to subscribe to HBO even if they did.

Thankfully, for those of you who share my situation, there are plenty of Def Poetry Jam clips on YouTube.

What we really need, though, are more programs like Def Poetry. We need mainstream—or semi-mainstream—programming to bring poetry to the masses. Hell, I’d even settle for an American Idol-esque show as long as it made poetry appealing to a wider audience.

As far as I know, Def Poetry Jam is the only program of its kind. Am I wrong about that? Are there more shows of this kind? If there are, please let me know.

And, if there is a way to watch Def Poetry Jam on Canadian television, please share that information as well. I’m sure that I’m not the only one who’s interested.

Roland Pemberton—aka: Cadence Weapon—is Edmonton’s Poet Laureate, and a rock star poet. He’s also a rapper.

At 23, Pemberton is Canada’s youngest poet laureate (and possibly the youngest in the world). He brings the energy of youth and hip hop to the role of poet laureate.

In addition to promoting the City of Edmonton in his role, Cadence Weapon may just help the art of poetry gain some respectability outside of university classrooms and coffee shop circle jerks.

Pemberton will still be touring the world as Cadence Weapon. And, at least in Canada, word has already started to get around that he is Edmonton’s poet laureate. Hopefully, people will see him at a show and decide that, if this talented young rapper is considered a poet of the highest order, maybe poetry isn’t so dull and boring after all.

Hell, maybe they’ll even decide that poets can be rock stars.

Some of my favourite poets are also rappers. Sage Francis and Kyprios both do spoken word, in addition to rap. But would they still be considered poets if they didn’t do pieces that were obviously spoken word bits (as opposed to rap songs)?

Are rappers poets?

Rappers definitely fall into the role of rock star, but can their lyrics be considered poetry? It’s not an easy question to answer. Like most things in life, there isn’t a definite answer.

The best answer we can arrive at is probably going to be: maybe. Just as you likely wouldn’t consider all songwriters to be poets, it’s a bit of a stretch to call all rappers poets.

While rap typically places more emphasis on the lyrics than a lot of rock or pop music does—which is probably why some people consider rap to be a form of poetry—a lot of the most popular rap songs are only popular because they have a good beat. If you stop and listen to the lyrics, you probably won’t be saying to yourself, “Soulja Boy is a brilliant poet! I love the imagery evoked by the line, ‘Superman that ho!’”

But then there are the rappers, like the aforementioned Sage Francis and Kyprios, who also write and perform poetry. Their poetry often informs their music, too. For example, a lot of Kyprios’ early songs were poems that he reworked into raps after he become interested in hip hop.

Similarly, when performing live, Sage Francis often reworks his song as spoken word pieces. I don’t just mean that he raps acapella, either. His whole performance is different and, if you didn’t know better, you’d likely think he was reciting a poem rather than a rap.

If the songs themselves draw from poerty—or can become poems—that lends creedance to the idea that rappers are poets. Some of them, at least.

And, maybe, these rappers can bring poetry to the people. Maybe they can help promote the idea of the rock star poet.

Unfortunately, most of these rap star poets aren’t household names. Everyone has heard of Jay-Z or 50 Cent; far fewer have heard of Sage Francis or Kyprios.

Still…it’s a start.

I’m lucky to live in a city where poetry is quite popular. It might be a bit of an underground art form, when compared to music (for example), but it’s here in spades.

There is a massive poetry community, and open mics are usually very busy.

There is a big poetry festival every spring (there used to be 2, but they decided to join forces—probably a wise decision, when all was said and done).

The Raving Poets, the Stroll of Poets, the Rouge Lounge folks…there’s a lot of poetry in Edmonton.

One of my favourite Edmonton poets—one who doesn’t perform often enough—is Mark Kozub.

Mark is a writer, an artist, and a musician. Among other things, he’s the bass player in the Raving Poets band. I think that makes him a genuine rock star, even without the poetry.

As you can see from the embedded videos, Mark is skilled at combining his drawings with his writing in order to create some pretty stellar video poems.

He’s also got a great sense of humour.

Mark’s ability to weave tales that are both humourous and heartbreaking, and to blend various media forms to create something truly unique, is what makes him a rock star poet. For more about Mark, be sure to check out his website: markkozub.com.

Taylor Mali is one of my favourite performance poets, so it seems only fitting that the first post on this blog should be about him.

Mali is a true performance poet. His poems are delivered with a passion and showmanship that makes them impossible to ignore. And they mean something.

He isn’t one of those spoken word poets who stand in front of a microphone and spew cool-sounding nonsense.

His words have meaning and his poems have impact. If you aren’t moved to either laugh, cry, or think more deeply about the subject of one of Taylor Mali’s poems then you must not have been listening.

Watch the videos I’ve embedded, and you’ll see why I think that Taylor Mali defines the rock star poet archetype.