The Collaborative Performance of Open Mic Poetry and the Art of Making Do

Open mic poetry events are representative examples of a widespread and socially significant performance phenomenon--the relational and dialogic art and activism of the sustained encounter as a demonstration of the possibility for new social relations. Open mic performances center the pleasure of creating and sharing art and relationships in a manner that works against the value systems of capitalistic exchange and enterprise. I conduct an autoethnographic study of the Transpoetic Playground--a reoccurring open mic poetry event in Carbondale, Illinois. This study mixes performative writing, poetry, and personal narrative with the ethnographic methods of participation observation and interviewing in order to tell a story of an amateur performance poetry community and what it can teach about how to resist the constraints of contemporary socio-communicative relations.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Campus Only Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Speech Communication

Year

2014

Author dc:creator

• Hassert, Joseph

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stucky, Nathan

• activism
• autoethnography
• community
• open mic
• poetry
• relational art

Repository record dc:identifier

https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/820

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:opensiuc.lib.siu.edu:dissertations-1823