How Amanda Gorman brought spoken word poetry to the Super Bowl
From poetry slams to Instagram, Gorman merges popular poetry's past with its future
Written by @KateMRedd
5 minute read
THE QUESTION:
How did spoken word poetry make it to the Super Bowl?
SUMMARY:
Amanda Gorman is bringing poetry back to the mainstream. She is the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate—and simply the first poet—to ever perform during the Super Bowl.
With the passion and power of a slam poet, plus the palatability of an “Instagram poet,” Gorman is not just carving out a new space for poetry, but bringing spoken word back into pop culture.
To understand this new evolution of poetry, you have to understand a few key terms.
First, there’s spoken word. And it’s just that—the performance of speaking a poem out loud.
Slam poetry is a little different. That’s what takes place at a poetry slam; where the classic “snapping instead of clapping” comes from. Slam poetry is judged and scored, and poets combine their words with their performance skills to rack up points. It’s also where the classic “slam voice” comes from—that iconic distressed tone partnered with a stilted cadence and dramatic crescendos.
But this style of poetry hasn’t always been relegated just to slams. Look no further than Button Poetry, whose poems racked up millions of views in the 2010s: “OCD,” performed by Neil Hilborn, has over 15 million views since it went live in 2013. Sarah Kay’s 2011 TEDTalk, “If I Should Have a Daughter,” has 5.9 million views on the TED YouTube channel.
However, Button’s most popular poems all came from five, six, or seven years ago. So what happened to slam poetry from then until now? And what’s so special about Amanda Gorman bringing it back into popular culture?
In 2014, while Button Poetry videos like “Explaining My Depression to My Mother” were going viral, a poet named Rupi Kaur self-published her first book of poetry, milk and honey. The slim black paperback gained traction—where else?—online. It found its home primarily with young women, using short, fragmented sentences and hand-drawn illustrations to take advantage of Instagram as a visual medium. Instagram has skyrocketed in popularity since 2014, and with it, this new popular poetry format.
And while the themes—struggle, abuse, feminism—and the amplification of marginalized voices remained in this new subgenre, the format became a lot more palatable than a shout into a microphone.
So palatable, in fact, that it’s often debated whether Instapoetry should be considered “real poetry” by classic standards, or whether it’s a term used to demean popular authors, many of whom are far more racially and politically diverse than the classic poets you might find in a standard English-classroom.
Such debates haven’t muddled the success of these popular poets. Kaur’s second book, the sun and her flowers, reached the top ten of the NYT bestseller list after just two weeks. Her third book, home body, remains at #4 on the NYT Paperback Trade Fiction List after its November 2020 release.
With over 4.1 million followers on Instagram, Kaur remains maybe the most prominent name in Instapoetry, although peers like Lang Leav, Amanda Lovelace and R.M. Drake boast their own successes. But as an example of success, Kaur makes a strong case study: not only does she rack up hundreds of thousands of likes on her poems, but uses her platform to advocate for social justice with enough clout to speak as a source on prominent issues.
This brings us back to the present, back to the Super Bowl, and back to Amanda Gorman. Sharing the spotlight with powerful figures like President Biden and Tom Brady gives Gorman the unique position of being, perhaps, the poet that the country at large is most familiar with.
She uses these performances to spread simple, easily understood messages; Often, she tips her hat to slam poets by incorporating their style and delivery into her messages of justice and unity in “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inauguration and in honoring veterans, frontline workers, and educators in “Chorus of the Captains” at the Super Bowl.
Gorman’s messages, shared at some of the nation’s most watched events, are made for the country as a whole, not just the insular community of people frequenting poetry slams or the carefully curated world of Instagram. With three (!) books forthcoming, including two featuring her poem from the inauguration, Amanda Gorman’s star status is bringing spoken word poetry back to new heights.
WHY THIS STORY IS WORTH TELLING:
Bringing poetry to the Super Bowl shows that there’s room for a thoughtful soliloquy in the mainstream (and not just from Bruce Springsteen in a Jeep commercial). As the Big Game becomes more than just a vehicle for sexy commercials, we are seeing a new opportunity to elevate diverse voices on platforms that traditionally exclude them.
NEWS PEG:
The Super Bowl, the inauguration, and whatever Amanda Gorman decides to do next.
WHAT WE DON’T HAVE ANSWERS TO YET*:
*For this story, we’d like to emphasize angles. With the background information from this pitch, we can’t wait to see where you go, but we’ll provide a few road signs for possible stories you might want to run with.
Amanda Gorman’s history: What makes her the right voice for this moment? What contributes to her unique style and her ability to command a stage?
How do slam poets feel about “Instapoetry?” What about vice versa? Is anyone working across those lines?
Is the Super Bowl a new platform for social activism? How is our perception of the Super Bowl—as a football game or an advertising platform—changing?
SOURCES WORTH INTERVIEWING:
Sam Van Cook, the founder and CEO of Button Poetry and a National Poetry Slam champion
Hanif Abdurraqib, Button Poetry’s Poetry Editor (and a poet and essayist)
Lang Leav, poet and novelist, often referenced as an “Instapoet”
RESEARCH SOURCES:
We’ll see you on the wire.
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