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.