Poetry Off the Page, Around the Globe
In recent decades, poetry performance has been one of the fastest growing arts practices internationally. Since movements such as Beat poetry, jazz poetry, and poetry slam have inspired performance scenes across the English-speaking world and beyond, innovative performance styles have emerged alongside new genres and styles of composition geared towards oral performance. The global reach of spoken word poetry has become highly noticeable in the arena of slam, evidenced by the diverse programmes of initiatives such as the 2005 ‘Poetry International World Slampionship’ in Rotterdam, the ‘Coupe du Monde de Poésie’ in France (since 2007), and the recently established ‘World Poetry Slam Organization’.