Def Poetry - Season 1 (2002)

Produced by Russell Simmons and hosted by Mos Def, this groundbreaking HBO series presents poetry for the hip-hop generation. The setting is New York's Supper Club, the performers are young men and women of every hue, and the tools are words: angry, funny--even profane--words. Taped live, each of the four 30-minute episodes from the first season features several poets and a guest or two (from the fiery Last Poets to the out-of-her-element Jewel). This isn't your grandma's traditional verse, but rather slam poetry--or spoken word--as influenced by Public Enemy as Langston Hughes and the evening news. Some are powerful (see Suheir Hammad), some clever (Sarah Jones), and some irritating (Yellow Rage), but each poem is sure to provoke some kind of reaction. Def Poetry would go on to beget a world tour, a Peabody Award and, in its Broadway incarnation, a Tony for best theatrical event. --Kathleen C. Fennessy Amazon.com

Great performance art

I am not sure what "Def" is.
I am not even sure I know what "Poetry" is, although I try to read much with an open mind--no, that's not what poetry appeals to--much with an extra sensitivity.
[There is some which has motivated me for life:

"I saw a man pursuing the horizon./Round and round they sped./This greatly disturbed me./I accosted the man, 'You can never. . .'/'You lie,' he cried, and ran on." Stephen Crane]

But whatever Def Poetry is, each episode of this season of this show begins with poetry--a snippet of Gwendolyn Brooks or William Shakespeare or Langston Hughes or Dylan Thomas, Def Poets, the show proclaims, all.
[And more:

"Oh generation of the thoroughly smug and the thoroughly uncomfortable./I have seen fishermen picknicking in the sun./I have seen them with untidy familes,/I have seen their smiles full of teeth and heard ungainly laughter./And I am happier than you are,/And they were happier than I am. . .Ezra Pound]

Whatever Def Poetry is--other than poetic, be it rant or performance--it is effective.
Before you--you teenage boy--suggest to your date you both jump in the backseat of a car, you should hear part of this--to see, to feel--what the girl may think. Before you--you college graduate dismiss the thought of teaching--you should hear part of this--to understand, to feel--"what teachers make".
Please, I'm ready for season next.

May 19, 2008

Doesn't Hold Up to Multiple Viewings

I really did like this when I began watching it. The performers are lively and dynamic, with a good quality of poems, enhanced by a committed audience and high production values. But the more I watch it, the more frustrated I become. It just doesn't hold up to multiple viewings.

On first watch, it is good. You might hear that it's a televised poetry performance and think you're going to see the Open Mike Night From Hell, but these poets are experienced performers and known crowd-pleasers. They hook the audience and keep them paying attention. I just wish there was something stronger and more compelling to pay attention to.

Part of the problem is the limited range of subject matters. I know the hip-hop milieu demands some attention to race, but the poetry on race issues sticks to a few well-worn ideas, most of them delivered in the same high-key and indistinctly enraged tone. The poetry about sex is similarly repetetive. It's not true, as some have said, that Andrea Dworkin claimed all sex is rape, but if you go by what you find on this DVD, you'll think most of it is.

A lot of the anger seems ungrounded. The prime example of this is duet act Yellow Rage, who seem angry that others dare approach them as equals. They start out shouting, they never stop shouting, and at one point they are shouting over each other, so that I can't follow a blessed word they are saying. I know that a lot of people seem to want to regard Asian women as sex toys, but I'm not one of them, so why are they yelling at me? The correct answer is, they're not. They're just yelling because that's what they do.

There are a number of very good poets in this collection. Taylor Mali, Suheir Hammad, and Poetri (yes, that's a real stage name) have well-written, incisive, and often funny poetry that makes the audience really think about what they're hearing, and question themselves. And each episode features a highly regarded senior artist from American poetry, including Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka, and the Last Poets. Not only are they excellent writers, but every one of them has a Hamlet-like stage presence worthy of the outsized poems they bring onstage with them.

But why are Dave Chapelle and Cedric the Entertainer in the show? And why are they reading poetry that feels like it got a B- in Freshman Poetry Analysis? I know these performers have a cachet that might bring an audience to the show, but they themselves feel as out-of-place as a honky in tie and tails attending a Public Enemy concert. And please, Mr. Simmons: of all the sentimental white-chick poets to get on your stage, you had to go with Jewel? I'm not sure you couldn't have done better going to any open mike night in America and picking out a random seventh-grader with dyed hair.

By no means is this series bad. But the good parts are strewn like bread crumbs through a minefield of verse. Devoted poetry fanatics may get plenty out of this series, but I can't recommend it to casual viewers. You'd be better rewarded to go with Slam Nation: The Sport of Spoken Word or Individual World Poetry Slam 2007 if you want a feel for what poetry feels like on the modern stage. This one is like a song with one note, a note that goes on far too long for my money. March 18, 2008

Very good dvd

This DVD is awesome the only problem I have with it is its too short only 4 episodes. March 23, 2007

LOVED IT!!!

Can't get enough of Def Poetry .. poetry period really. I own Season 1-4, and I'm ready for 5 & 6. Deep poetry, deep people, and deep meaning. HIGHLY recommended. March 8, 2007

silly!!!!!! Pointless, most "ABSURD" thing on TV

This is just angry people venting with vulgarity.

This isn't poetry! If this is im the next James Joyce. February 25, 2007

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