Girls Who Read is a poem, written and performed by poet, writer, teacher, actor, spoken word performer, and rap-battler, Mark Grist.
The video from Roundhouse London, is a testament to how powerful and beautiful poetry can be. With today's tendency towards sound bites and twitter talk, it is wonderful to see the return of the spoken word performance. This movement towards (or backwards) to the power of words and language to convey idea's and tell stories is part of the human experience. The oral tradition, From the early Norse saga's and the bardic traditions of the middle ages to the Izibongo, African praise poets, who for centuries performed oral recounting's of a tribal chief’s accomplishments. The Romans's took oration and words to a level of importance that we have not seen since. The Tibetan Paper Singer or Grags-pa seng-ge carried a similar role in Central and North Eastern Asia. He recounted ongoing stories about kings and their accomplishments. His historical poems were often tens of thousands of lines long.
