Do we need to memorize poetry any more? Some say that in the age of text, we’ve lost the art of memorization. Spoken word and slam poets, however, keep the oral tradition of poetry alive. This week, Jason and Kevin discuss the value of memorizing poetry in the digital age.

Mentioned in this week’s show:

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• “The lost art of memorizing poetry†by Nina Kang
  
• Slam poet Saul Williams on The Colbert Report
  
• What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee
  
• Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf
  
• Poetry Out Loud – National Recitation Contest from the NEA – great example of helping students understand and recite poems they enjoy and get to choose
  
• Rap Genius and Poetry Genius – two websites bridging gaps between text annotations and spoken word
  
• Take A Walk. Your Writing Depends on It. Our take on a recent study that shows taking a walk increases your creative productivity by 60 percent
  
• “A Tone Poem†by John Ashberry – Nina Kang discusses this poem in her article
  
• “America†by Allen Ginsberg
  
• Poetry Out Loud: the Anthology
  
• Future Shock by Alvin Toffler
  
• Chicago Slam Works
  
• Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems, translated by Robert Bly
  

We didn’t cover this in the show, but if you’re interested in arguments for/against orality, check out Plato’s Phaedrus and Walter Ong’s book, Orality and Literacy. Both books give you an idea of why we honor oral communication in a textual age.

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Our show theme song is “Street Preacher†by Jason’s band, Jason and the Beast.

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