Linguistic (and Non-linguistic) Influences on Urban Performance Poetry in South African Contemporary Youth Culture

Abstract

This chapter explores the influences of South African urban performance poetry, which is said to be highly influenced by the slam poetry movement in the United States. It argues that this poetry draws from local and international linguistic repertoires, dialects and registers, and live performances include non-linguistic resources such as body, movement, hand gestures, as well as the use of visual media and music. Like urban youth languages, urban performance poetry manipulates language and dialects for specific purposes. Urban youth languages such as iScamtho or Tsotsitaal, as well as other South African languages, are sometimes incorporated into performances, along with the country’s indigenous languages. Despite this, many performance poets choose to write and perform mostly in English. South African urban performance poetry remains an under-researched area, as it is still developing. However, the diverse multimodal and linguistic influences make urban performance poetry an interesting field to research.