Atlanta Spoken word artist Tommy Bottoms' style is a mix of Carlin, Orwell & Jay Z
On the “City Lights” series “Speaking of Poetry,” Atlanta’s most prolific wordsmiths discuss the art of evoking emotions with words. This edition of “Speaking of Poetry” features Spoken Word artist Tommy Bottoms.
“I would describe my poetry as definitely Hip-Hop influenced with a lot of social commentary,’” Bottoms says. “So I would probably describe it as George Carlin meets George Orwell meets Sean Carter [AKA Jay-Z].”
Bottoms got exposed to poetry in the late 90s. He went to open mics for about six months, observing what people were doing onstage before deciding he could do it too.
Bottoms doesn’t have a process for writing poetry as much as he has a process that he uses to create a poem. He makes it up in his head and then builds on each line until the idea is fleshed out.
When it comes to performing poetry, Bottoms uses lots of repetition. If it’s a large performance he’s preparing for, he might attend a few open mics to practice the poem.
“Performing a poem in your bathroom is one thing, or in your car while you’re driving. But it’s another thing to be in front of an audience ‘cause the poem starts taking on a life of its own once you start putting it out into the universe and in front of people,” Bottoms says.
“Sometimes you gotta pick up on those little things that you won’t pick up on in the bathroom.”
In this segment, Tommy Bottoms shared an excerpt from a poem he wrote called “1984.”
You can find out more about Spoken Word artist Tommy Bottoms on Instagram here.
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