Listen Live
Power 107.5 Featured Video
CLOSE
Vulture Festival Opening Night Party

Source: Brad Barket / Getty

Roses are red, Violets are blue, it’s Great Poetry day, so give the poets their just due.  The special day was created to recognize the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind.

“One of the main objectives of the Day is to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities”.- UNESCO

“The observance of Great Poetry Day is also meant to encourage a return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals, to promote the teaching of poetry, to restore a dialogue between poetry and the other arts such as theatre, dance, music and painting, and to support small publishers and create an attractive image of poetry in the media”.- UNESCO

To some, poetry is considered an outdated art form that’s not as cool as other forms of expression. There’s even a whole book dedicated to the fact that some people genuinely hate poetry, entitled ‘The Hatred of Poetry’ Ben Lerner. In an interview with The Atlantic, Lerner said,

“What happens is that a lot of people stop reading poetry or stop writing poetry, and they only really encounter it at weddings, or they encounter it if someone is foolish enough to claim to be a poet. To say you’re a poet is to say you’re more human than they are. You never grew up and took a job and you plan on being accommodated because you’re still in the space of the abstract potential of language or whatever. That can produce a lot of species of resentment, even if the encounter is a good one.”

But on the flip side, the ancient art is still beloved by many people over the world, including some of our favorite artists. Educator Susan Hern says:

“People also hate it because poncy poets want to make people think that they—by virtue of the fact that they’re poets – have special insight into feelings, like they’re feeling superheros. People hate that ‘I’m more sensitive than you’ voice that inspires so many bad poems.”

Hip Hop in some ways is its own form of poetry. Many rappers were poets before attaching their libretto some music. Not all po-artists share their poetic skills with the world. But some do. Hit the flip to check 8 artists who are also poets, and ain’t afraid to show it.

No Name

 

Wale

 

Mos Def

 

Common

 

Erykah Badu

 

J. Cole

 

Tupac

 

Poetry Month: 8 Artists Who Are Poets And Ain’t Afraid To Show It   was originally published on globalgrind.com