REPRESENTATIONS OF YOUTH SUBALTERNITY IN SELECTED KENYAN SPOKEN WORD POETRY

Abstract

This study examines how selected Kenyan spoken word poets give voice to the concerns of the youth. It explores how the youth use spoken word poetry to confront stereotypes of young people by trying to reach the broader listening public through politically and socially relevant poems. The study is guided by the following objectives: to explicate factors that make spoken word poetry more accessible and easily appropriated by subaltern groups amplifying the performance of their experiences; to investigate the recurring themes highlighting the fluidity of subaltern identities amongst Kenyan youths revealing resistance, and; to interrogate spoken word’s poetic dialogic conversations woven with other voices, enriching meaning within existing canons. The study analyses the works of selected spoken word poets examining how formal, stylistic, and performance techniques chosen by the selected artists facilitate the representation of the realities of Kenyan youth. To this end, the form of the text is read through the lens of formalism, the concept of literariness by Jakobson to articulate the experiences of young people and to offer resistance. While the thematic issues are analyzed by Spivak’s concept of subalternity to inform how young people navigate limitations imposed on them. Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism creates spaces of resistance and collective identity formation. The study uses qualitative research approaches to gather textual data from the selected texts. Therefore, the paradigms, methods and other methodological considerations are in line with qualitative methods. The significance of this study lies in its ability to raise awareness of a genre that can be used as a tool for pedagogy and adopted by the youth for talent promotion, making fascinating interventions in the study of spoken word as an art form and the way it is interpreted. It significantly contributes to knowledge about how cultural, creative industries can promote youth economic empowerment, hence informing policy in this area on county and national level and promotion activities targeting the youths. The study found out that spoken word poetry provides a vital platform for Kenyan youth to articulate their subaltern experiences, challenge dominant discourses, and envision alternative futures.