Def Poetry Jam on Paper - Hardcover

Simmons

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743476212 ISBN 13: 9780743476218

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2003

Synopsis

It's where Walt Whitman meets Michael Jackson. It's where Emily Dickinson meets Mary J. Blige. It's Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam, the lyrical, smart, hilarious, and searingly honest new show that has become a true phenomenon on Broadway, earning critical raves and drawing huge cheers nightly. Def Poetry Jam is an experience that's not to be missed: Nine gifted, young poets speaking from the heart about everything from love to sex, politics, and Krispy Kreme donuts. If Langston Hughes or Virginia Woolf were alive today, this is what they'd sound like. The roster includes both well-established and up-and-coming poets -- including Suheir Hammad, author of Born Palestinian, Born Black; Black Ice, a.k.a. Lamar Manson, the first spoken-word artist to be signed to Def Jam Records; Beau Sia, author of A Night Without Armor II: The Revenge, and a two-time National Poetry Slam champion; and Poetri, one of the founders of Da Poetry Lounge in Los Angeles. Essential for every fan of contemporary poetry, Russell Simmons Def Jam on Broadway...and More is a cutting-edge and constantly surprising volume that takes a fresh, exuberant, sometimes insightful, sometimes comedic look at who we are and where we are today.

About this title

Review:

"What a lot of people don't know is Broadway itself emerged from uptown cabaret from rent parties....You belong. Yeah, Def Jam Poetry Rap. Hip-Hop Nation. You belong." -- Nikki Giovanni ""Def Poetry Jam" shows that when you present black and Hispanic kids with literature that has something to do with their lives, they'll pay attention." -- Ishmael Reed "These poets seize us with rhythm and passion. They give us romance, realism, comedy, and politics. That's entertainment!" -- "New York Times" "Stunning, startling, amazingly now." -- Ntozake Shange "Time"The rap world had better be careful. It is getting dangerously close to mainstream acceptance.

About the Author:

Danny Simmons, a renowned painter of abstract-expressionist oil works, owns the Rush Arts Gallery in Manhattan and Corridor Gallery in Brooklyn. A poet and cofounder of the Def Poetry Jam performance series, he heads the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation with his brother, Russell Simmons. He lives in Brooklyn.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0743476212
• ISBN 13: 9780743476218
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128