Week of October 11, 2000

Language is our most powerful tool… we use it to communicate our thoughts, our fears, our emotions and our ideas. This hour of The Infinite Mind explores the art and science of language in contemporary culture. We hear slang from the streets of New York City and from researchers who study slang among college students. A spoken word artist and a team of slam poets talk about how they use and manipulate language to explore their own lives. And a report on how and why minority communities take derogatory words aimed at them and embrace them for their own use. Guests include: Spalding Gray, spoken word artist; Dr. Connie Eble, an English professor and Linguist at University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill; The Urbana Slam Poetry Team, the current National Slam Poetry Team Champions; and Dr. Ronald Butters, a professor of English and Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. Commentary by John Hockenberry.

Host Dr. Fred Goodwin opens the show by sharing his thoughts on language. Language, Dr. Goodwin says, is the ultimate issue of the mind – the human language ability is one factor that helps to separate us from other animals. But language is always changing depending on the context the language is used in, how words are pronounced and who pronounces them. Ultimately, the language we use helps to identify us and place us socially in our culture. All of us struggle to communicate what we mean, but some people push language to its limits and use language to explore life and to tell each other about it.

Our first guest is actor, writer, performer and spoken word artist Spalding Gray who is currently appearing on Broadway in Gore Vidal”s “The Best Man.” (Call 212-239-6200 or 1-800-432-7250 to order tickets.) Mr. Gray joins us to talk about his process of creating a monologue, of writing his books and about his fear of language. Language, for Mr. Gray, is like rock climbing for others… it presents him with his toughest challenges and his greatest rewards. Mr. Gray performs the opening to his most recent monologue “Morning, Noon and Night” and explains how he created that monologue. (You can order a tape of Morning, Noon and Night by calling Storytapes: 1-800-238-8273.)

He calls his monologues his own version of slang because he does not follow the rules of grammar. Rather, he says, he speaks what feels right in his mouth. When performing a monologue he enters a trance-like state… he says it is his “ultimate high.” Mr. Gray concludes by examining his own autobiographical work in relation to the current trend in the media to expose one”s self all of the time. He criticizes daytime TV talk shows for having no consciousness in their work, and suggests these shows represent a breakdown in language in our popular culture.

The Infinite Mind”s producer Dempsey Rice visits the streets of New York City to learn the current slang of youth culture.

Next, we are joined by Dr. Connie Eble a professor of English and English Linguistics from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Department of English; CB# 3520; Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3520) Dr. Eble is author of “Slang and Sociability” printed by The University of North Carolina Press. (To order please call 1-800-848-6224.) Dr. Eble has been studying the use of slang at The University of North Carolina for the past thirty years and talks about slang as an important part of our language.

Slang is a kind of vocabulary that allows us to express ourselves creatively through language and that bonds people together. Slang helps us to define who is part of our professional, political or social group and who isn”t – it acts as a means of inclusion and exclusion on a daily basis. The origin of the word “slang” is unknown, but it may come from the term “thieves” language” where the possessive “s” from thieves” and the “lang” from language are run together to make the word slang.

Although some slang words like “cool” and “sweet” have a long history, most slang words are ephemeral – they come and go quickly as their popularity ebbs and flows. Dr. Eble discuss the origins of slang terms such as “phat,” (pronounced “fat” and meaning “the best”) and “talking to Ralph on the big white phone” (slang for vomiting), and links many slang terms with the popularity of hip-hop and rap music. She tells us that mass media (television, film, radio, music and books) is the means by which slang is spread and documented in the 21st century.

Much slang has entered middle-class, white society through the African-American community. Slang tends to incubate in the African-American community because of the strong oral tradition encouraged within that community. Dr. Eble concludes with the idea that slang provides a window into youth culture and can help to track social patterns in American youth.

The Urbana Slam Poetry Team – The Year 2000 National Slam Poetry Team Champions, joins The Infinite Mind’s Dempsey Rice in the studio. The Urbana Team poets are Beau Sia, Taylor Mali, Celena Glenn and Noelle Jones. They were joined by their Slam Mistress, and organizer, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowitz. First, the team performs the group poem “Running a Race/No One Knows,” written by Celena Glenn, which helped them to win the Year 2000 Team title.

The Urbana team explains that there really is no such thing as “slam poetry,” but that there are “poetry slams” which are gatherings of poets who perform their work in 3 minute segments without the aid of props or instruments for an audience which includes five judges. The judges are chosen at random from audience members and rate each poem on a scale of one through ten. The purpose of the poetry slam is to open poetry up to non-poets, to bring poetry to the masses and to invite lay people to join in and enjoy poetry.

The team discusses their individual relationships with language and the way that they manipulate language for their performance poetry differently than written poets manipulate language. As performance poets, the Urbana members have the advantage of the ambiguity of the spoken word that cannot be explored when a word is written down in a poem. In addition, the slam poetry community provides an immediate exchange of thoughts and ideas among peers. Slam poetry allows people to relate on their own level. It’s powerful to be on the stage and use one’s own voice and own presence to be honest and to define one’s self in front of an audience, they say.

Finally, we are joined by Dr. Ronald Butters , a professor of English and Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. (Duke University; English Department; 514 Allen Building; Durham, NC 27708-0015) Dr. Butters discusses how minority communities embrace derogatory words that have been aimed at them and begin using those words within their own community. Dr. Butters is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Oxford University Press “American Dictionaries Project” and the author of several books including "The Death of Black English: Divergence and Convergence in White and Black Vernaculars" and "Displacing Homophobia: Gay Male Perspectives in Literature and Culture."

Derogatory words are embraced by minority communities to remove some of the sting of those words, he says. In the 1930’s & 1940’s the word “queer” in the gay community was the neutral of self-reference and the word “gay” was seen as somewhat derogatory. In the 1960’s & 1970’s, the word “queer” became derogatory while the word “gay” became the politically correct term to use. This switch was ironic, but it is even more ironic that in the 21st century the feelings about these words are being reversed once again. “Gay” is on its way out and “queer” is on its way back in, he says.

In the African-American community, Dr. Butters says, the “n-word” is the strongest derogatory word used about the community, but it is also used within the community as a form of ironic self-reference. Gay people use the word “faggot” in the same way, he adds. Using these words within minority communities does not necessarily neutralize them in our common parlance. In addition, the minority communities that adopt them are not trying to make them more socially acceptable, but they are using them as a paradoxical form of affection and as a way to lash out at the super-culture that gives strength to those derogatory words, he says.

Commentator John Hockenberry closes the show with commentary about how language and speech are the new tools that his two year old twin daughters have acquired. Language has allowed his toddlers to open windows, and their parents and loved ones are looking inside.

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