The American/English tongue is saturated with monosyllabic verbs & nouns that imply short, forceful, vivid action— zip, flick, glom, sclaff, wonk; many are dialectic or short-lived slang; the language sounds like guff, gas, clack, drool, bosh, bunk, flap, to other language speakers.
Early
Traditions >
Sound Waves
General: A-O
- acousticology
- The science of sound.
- art
- The creative human expression of beauty, feelings, ideas &/or spirit connectedness falling within an intellectualized criteria in relation to the history of style.
- audiological
- Making sense in relation to sound.
- Colab
- Collaboration of performance artists working on a show or artists of different genres merging their forms into a common art work.
- commercial
- Radio/TV ad. At first, stations were run by individuals who eventually went bankrupt, govt. wouldn't pay for regional news/entertainment, but private businesses said yes in exchange for commercial pitches.
- dub
- To insert or layer a sound byte into an existing track. Also "Dub" a Reggae-based poetry genre.
- Early Traditions
- The SpokenOak website time period of American Spoken Arts from early Ero-settlers through 1800's into 20th century. entertainment Performance art for art's sake.
- fusion
- A melding of art forms. Also "Canadian Fusion" is a genre founded by Todd Swift in the 1970's.
- Futurwurds
- The SpokenOak website time period of American Spoken Arts prophesizing the future of Spoken Word as imagined by performance artist Zoa Smith.
- genre
- Category. A particular style of art or performance.
- hyperstory
- Story that unfolds through audience participation, reaction or collaborative, improvisational telling.
- hypertext
- Story that unfolds through links to infinite chapters or outcomes. Based on reader choices or collaborative writing.
- Individualism
- Philosophical idea made famous in America as a pioneer value through the glorification & icon-izing of the "backwoodsman" & a famous speech/essay by Herbert Hoover outlining the virtues of freedom of choice, freedom to change & opportunity available to all.
- Industriots
- The SpokenOak website time period of American Spoken Arts from turn of the 20th century through immigration & industrialization & modernization.
- interactive
- Allowing user or listener response or collaboration.
General: P-Z
- page poetry
- Published poetry, academic-style, term used by spoken word-ers to delineate their work as "stage poetry".
- performance art
- A dominant dramatic form of the 60's & 70's applied to a variety of genres, often mixed-media such as with film, movement, music, setting & words. Venues include stage, art galleries & unconventional settings like warehouses, parks, street corners, businesses.
- piece
- A poem or one separate story in an overall show or performer's repertoire.
- Postmodern
- The SpokenOak website time period of American Spoken Arts from the 70's through computers & multi-media trends into the 90's.
- Rap
- The SpokenOak website time period of American Spoken Arts exploring the birth & boom of hip-hop global development from 1979 to date.
- repertoire
- All of the performance poems or stories you have created or practice & are ready to perform.
- slam
- Lively, competitive poetry event begun in the 80's by poet Mark Smith. Today includes an extensive touring network, state, national & world championships.
- slamdiva
- Slam champion, female.
- slammaster
- Slam champion, male.
- Sound Waves
- The SpokenOak website time period of American Spoken Arts focusing on radio invention & sound-tech development from 1900's to 1960's.
- soundscape
- The aural environment, anything natural, human-made & cultural-specific.
- stage poetry
- As opposed to "page poetry", it's performance poetry, Slam, Dub, any spoken poetry.
- street performer
- Non-academic performer, often self-taught, folk, disadvantaged, unconventional or representing a local or marginalized culture.
- talent
- The performer. Whether they actually have talent is another matter.
- Talkapella
- Postmodern performance genre of myth, music & sound. Invented & performed by Zoa Smith creator of this site.
- Telling Roots
- The SpokenOak website time period of American Spoken Arts from birth of words through indigenous telling & early Euro-settlers.
- track
- A recording. Also, one layer of recorded sound in an overall project which can be manipulated separately before final mix (sound edit).
- virtual
- Fully sensory, computer-created reality.
