According to Jamele Adams, it's "the ultimate adrenaline for expression, be it romantic, political, comedic, underground, or commercial. It is unabridged, unequivocal personal expression. It's the quintessential display of confidence, storytelling and art. It's the masterpiece mosaic of theater, poetry, and oration.""You sort of have to see it to get an idea," Jason Simon-Bierenbaum '11 says. The South Jersey native and the Associate Dean of Student Life are referring to Spoken Word, an art Simon-Bierenbaum has been practicing and developing since his early teens.

Spoken Word is a genre of performance art wherein poets deliver written works in a style similar to rappers and hip-hop artists. Though claiming similar roots and rhythmic styles to hip-hop, Spoken Word is only sometimes accompanied by music. Both genres began gaining ground in the early 1980s when rap and hip-hop entered the national consciousness and poetry slam contests were popularized on television. Spoken Word's cultural prominence perhaps culminated in the 2002 debut of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam, an HBO series showcasing eminent Spoken Word artists.

The emotional, often youthful energy of slam poetry, a form of Spoken Word is the genre's defining characteristic. The performances can seem almost improvised and spontaneous, like the Beat poetry of the 1960s. The lyrics are often related to personal or political issues, and are written in a confessional style; however, the slam poet is not limited to a certain thematic area. Simon-Bierenbaum says he carefully edits and memorizes his poems, although "when you perform, it's like you're creating it every single time." The integration of rhythm and delivery with the words makes it so "you can deliver different pieces differently with the same words," he says.

As a charter member of the Philadelphia Youth Slam Team, Simon-Bierenbaum wrote and performed pieces with a group of four other teenagers in the Philadelphia area. The team's diversity was an important asset: One of Simon-Bierenbaum's favorite group pieces was one the team wrote the night before an international competition which featured four voices, each representing a different theme. Simon-Bierenbaum spoke about nature and the environment; other team members focused on politics or romance. The team practiced the piece, which considered the self-limitations imposed by adherence to only one way of thinking, on a New York subway on the way to performing at the Apollo Theater. Since Simon-Bierenbaum can no longer write and perform with his team-mates year round, he plans to try out for the Providence team this fall. If he joins the team, it will be the last year he will be able to compete in the youth category.

Before Spoken Word, Simon-Bierenbaum wrote poetry in his early childhood and songs as a young teen. His focus shifted in the fall of his sophomore year of high school when his mother took him to an open mic in Camden, N.J. Here, he saw Spoken Word performed for the first time. Simon-Bierenbaum wrote his first Spoken Word piece that night, before leaving the venue. By January, he says, "I was obsessed. By March, I'd won my first state contest (sponsored by the New Jersey Theater Alliance) and gotten to perform with some professional poets." By junior year, his local team had won third place in the Brave New Voices 2007 International Youth Poetry Slam Festival, and by senior year, his team took the grand prize in the competition.

Simon-Bierenbaum feels that his extracurricular interests as a child contributed to his affinity for the rhythmic poetry of Spoken Word. His musical interests range from folk to punk to hip-hop. As a child, he played drums and took part in plays, all of which developed his writing and performing talents. "It all came together," he says. his style draws on some likely sources; he claims hip-hop artist Talib Kweli and folk rebel Phil Ochs as influences, as well as the punk band Anti-Flag ("I like their educated rebellion.") However, a little more surprising, he stresses the influence of Dr. Seuss on his writing.

"Dr. Seuss and Henry David Thoreau are my two favorite philosophers," he says. Dr. Seuss's writings are "simple and can be taken for face value, but there's more." The symbolism and social messages of such books as The Butter Battle Book appeal to the young writer, whose genre, like hip-hop, can be highly politicized."

"Poetry is something that he lives and he breathes," says Adams, an accomplished Spoken Word artist in his own right. "It permeates his existence." Adams and Simon-Bierenbaum met when the young writer visited Brandeis as a high school student. Says Adams, "I look forward to seeing him do wonderful things. He has the potential to be one of the superheroes on campus. He's a poet of tradition, accented with youthful brilliance."

As Jason contemplates developing Brandeis' poetry scene and working with non-profits to bring poetry and creative writing to young people, he plans to keep competing in slam poetry competitions and to perform on the college circuit.

"I think I'm coming into my own voice," he says. "[Author] Tobias Wolff said that there's something of an imitation phase before you come into your own style." But, Simon-Bierenbaum says confidently, "everything is building off of something that came before.