Spoken Word Poetry as a Postmodern Urban Genre in Kenya

Abstract

Urbanization in Kenya has led to the creation of a multicultural society which is characterized by an increased use of digital technology in the postmodern era. This society is made up of young people who may not have affiliations to their parents’ culture. This has thus resulted in the development of an urban culture in which no ethnic language is more dominant than the other. Sheng is one of the languages of this urban society which mirrors its cultural diversity. Having a multicultural urban society has also necessitated the development of urban genres such as spoken word poetry which is mostly performed by the youth in Kenya. This study has therefore examined spoken word poetry a postmodern urban genre. The study has taken the approach of a case study of live recorded spoken word performances performed by Poet Teardrops, a youth who demonstrates a high level of social consciousness, on Churchill Show and Churchill Raw. These performances portray urban images such as criminal activities and class differences, and can be used to construct urban identities through naming, dressing and language. The spoken word performances also demonstrate how art can help to imagine a habitable urban environment. The performance theory has been employed in this study to demonstrate that more than being entertaining, the performances also carry educative elements. This theory has further been used to frame the performances within a technological frame through mediations that are important in enhancing the Poet’s message. The theory of hyper-reality has also been used to show that the selected performances contain hyper-real images that portray the virtual reality of the urban society. Lastly, the theory of ethno-poetics has been used in writing the transcriptions and translations of the selected performances.