Given that it documents an oral medium, this collection has to be judged mostly by its accompanying CD, with the print text secondary.

Narrated with forced garrulousness by slam paterfamilias Mark Smith, the disc begins with an introduction from poet laureate Billy Collins, which gives way to a Quincy Troupe piece (with slick guitar accompaniment), filed under the odd designation "Beat Remnants." That term is also applied to decidedly nonperformance poets Edward Hirsch (who literally phones in a poem with correspondingly poor audio quality) and Marvin Bell, who gives an arid, audience-less studio performance.

Things pick up with Slam star Saul Williams' s pro performance and 1999 slam champion Roger Bonair-Agard's electrifying and often hilarious alphabetic poem.