The first definitive history of one of the 21st century's most explosive art movements, Words In Your Face explores the birth, growing pains and continuing development of the Poetry Slam -- a raucous poetry event that has been called "a pop culture phenomenon" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times), "the death of Art" (Harold Bloom, Paris Review) and has been blamed for making "poetry sexy again in a way it hasn't been since the heyday of the Beats" (Stephen Holden, The New York Times). Spoken word icons such as Saul Williams, Maggie Estep, Bob Holman and John S. Hall join scores of other poets, organizers, filmmakers, scholars and critics in bringing the story of the New York City Poetry Slam movement to life. Author Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz tells the story of slam's origins in the roofless, unheated Nuyorican Poets Café and then traces the explosive growth of slam as the media pick up on the trend--MTV's Unplugged begins to feature slam poets; PBS runs the mini-series The United States of Poetry, produced by then-Nuyorican impressario, Bob Holman; Lollapalooza adds a spoken word tent; and Holman also launches a spoken word label with Mercury Records. Aptowicz shows how, rather than depend on the fickle media for continued support, Slam instead deepens and broadens organically, avoiding the flash-in-the-pan flame-out of, say, the grunge scene. The author also establishes a relationship between the poetry slam world and the academic poetry world, encouraging interaction between academia and slammers, especially the poets of color, the youth slammers and the burgeoning hip hop poetry scene. She also shows how the scene has created the only non-academic way to make a living as a poet, as many poets are able to quit the day job through the opportunities created from touring, publishing, performing, audio downloads and matures to where it is a key component of educational initiatives and political campaigns.