Atlanta poet Adan Bean connects origins of hip-hop lyricism to poetry of the Harlem Renaissance
Our “Speaking of” series spotlights local creatives sharing their inspiration, influences and experiences. In our continued efforts to expand the series, today we add “Speaking of Poetry” to our collection.
In this segment, Atlanta’s most prolific wordsmiths discuss the art of evoking emotions with words.
For the first edition of “Speaking of Poetry,” we feature poet Adan Bean. Bean describes his poetry as rhyming poetry as he comes out of a music background of MCing and rapping. “It’s descriptive, there’s imagery, there’s an emotional context to it, but ultimately it’s going to have rhyming… It’s definitely not poetry that is simply meant to be read, but it’s an audio. It’s meant to be heard,” says Bean.
Once he started to write raps as a child, he realized, “Oh, I’m actually practicing a form of poetry.” He then started drawing the connections between artists like Nas, Jay Z and Mos Def to poets like Countee Cullen, Claude McKay and Langston Hughes.
In this segment, Bean shares the opening of his poem “The Spiral.” “It’s a poem that I wrote in dedication to my late father,” Bean said. “It kind of plays on both ideas around our love of football, so throwing a ‘spiral pass’ and then also the idea of spiraling in grief.” Here is the excerpt he shared:
They say the definition of insanity is to do the same thing again and again and again and yet expect a different result…
…Call me crazy.
Football is like a religion where I’m from.
And in the name of my father, I was the son learning to throw a spiral as a child.
Mild-mannered and enamored with Pops
He taught me everything, the footwork of a three or a 5-step drop
But when it got to the mechanics of a tight spiral
I was told it was all in the hold, the grip…
Work by Adan Bean can be found here and you can follow the poet on Instagram here.
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