Saul Williams and Rives

Eric:

Since we are a spoken word poetry group, I thought I should (re)mention two great poets: Saul Williams and Rives. Saul Williams is the reigning king of spoken word. I find that individually his pieces are incredible. Taken as a whole, his work seems too focused for me. He is always talking about race, it seems. But he is an incredible performer.

Saul Williams doing Coded Language

Saul Williams in the film Slam doing Amethyst Rock

Rives is full of wit, wordplay, and humor. His delivery is perfect; gestures, rising and falling speeds, conversational. The conversational element works surprising well; he feels like a friend. The only negative thing I would have to say is that his poems are bit shallow, but that suits spoken word.

Rives' website

Rives doing Dirty Talk

Rives doing If I Controlled The Internet

He gave did a great piece that isn't really a poem but that you should watch: Rives on 4am
And a cool piece on emoticons that turns into a story: Rives on Emoticons

The website those last two pieces are on is called TED. It has hundreds of free lectures on it that vary from funny to informational to tragic. TED is a conference on Technology, Entertainment, and Design. An award is given by them each year. Check out their website. It's fuel for poems. Great stuff.

Eric out.