As a producer and occasional performer for the past few years I’ve learned what Rita Mae Brown says so well: “Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides”.  Spoken Word artists and writers employ the same basic tool, words.  How and where they use them is part of the mystique of the two separate yet connected artforms.  Mark Amidon says: “Language is the means of getting an idea from my brain into yours without surgery.”

Communicating meanings or feelings is the essential goal and there are many ways to get there.  Reading, listening, watching a performance, participating in spoken word events, all can produce the ultimate experience of understanding someone else’s creative expression.  Fellini explained it in this way: “A different language is a different vision of life.”

Chuck Larkin is talking specifically about storytelling when he writes: “All branches to various degrees are forms of entertainment and information transfer”, and I think the same applies to writing.

Writers reading their work or performers writing out their performance blur the lines.  There really aren’t any lines, it’s a continuum of the same craft.  The most important thing is the keep practicing, keep moving the pen and/or getting in front of an audience.  Colette said: “Writing only leads to more writing” and the same can be said about most creative endeavors.

To sum up, Jane Wagner puts it in perspective this way:  “I personally believe we developed language because of our deep inner need to complain.”