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Joshua Bennett is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. He is the author of four books of poetry and criticism- The Sobbing School (Penguin, 2016)-winner of the National Poetry Series and a finalist for an NAACP Image Award-as well as Being Property Once Myself (Harvard University Press, 2020), Owed (Penguin, 2020), and The Study of Human Life (Penguin, 2022). Earlier this year, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Whiting Award for Poetry and Nonfiction. Joshua earned his Ph.D. in English from Princeton University, and an M.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Warwick, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He has recited his original works at the Sundance Film Festival, the NAACP Image Awards, and President Obama's Evening of Poetry and Music at the White House. He has also performed and taught creative writing workshops at hundreds of middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities across the United States, as well as in the U.K. and South Africa. Joshua has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, MIT, and the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. His writing has been published in Best American Poetry, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. Alongside his friend and colleague, Jesse McCarthy, he is the founding co-editor of Minor Notes, a Penguin Classics book series dedicated to minor poets within the black expressive tradition. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and son, Pam and August, and their family dog, Apollo 5.
Joshua Bennett wasn't on the sidelines observing the spoken word revolution he was in it, and he knew it was too good to be ghettoised, too uncut and raw to be ignored and too fly not to survive. It is rare to find such a nuanced and erudite record from an insider of a culture. A must-read for all interested in poetry, culture and its evolution. * Roger Robinson, author of 'Home is Not a Place' * A galvanising, thoroughgoing history of rare literary quality. Dr Joshua Bennett is courageously personal and honest in his account, but it's a passion which speaks to all of us, and to anyone still finding their voice or the nerve to take that risk, from the back room of the local arts centre to the biggest stages in the world. All written with the detail, lyricism, imagination and intellect of a seasoned poet. I feel more hopeful and excited for having read it. * Luke Kennard, author of 'Notes on the Sonnets' * Joshua Bennett's memoir and cultural history is a stirring reminder that no other art form is grounded in, and centres, community like spoken word does. I loved reading about how, through care, dedication, and will, spaces were forged that allowed voices from any and everywhere to come, be heard, and develop into some of the most radical and vital truth tellers of our times. * Rishi Dastidar, author of 'Saffron Jack' * Anyone who has felt the heart-racing, heart-aching, heart-breaking atmosphere of a spoken word venue; anyone who revels in the word play performance poets let reverberate on a page; poets who spit fire (of course, nothing less will do) -- this is for you. Bennett captures lightning in a bottle: not just a few of spoken word's historical touchstones, but glimpses of all that the form has wrought in its various illustrious afterlives. In addition to a history, Bennett's work is an apt translation of the atmosphere to the page, of the history to the present, of the momentum of it all. Folks imagine spoken word was a thing that existed back then, a mere trend for the young folk with too much time and angst or, alternatively, they imagine that spoken word's origins are so ancient that the modern form of this art would be too meager to mention. Bennett clarifies for us that spoken word is no passing fad, swept away by the passage of time. It is, instead, howling wind that deserves our respect for how it transforms everything, leaving the world more exposed, more open, and more beautiful in its wake. * Theri A. Pickens, author of 'Black Madness' *
