When 68-year-old Eileen Littig first witnessed "spoken word" about a year ago, she said she was "completely blown out of the water."

The elderly but vibrant retiree and producer for "Teen Connection," which airs on Wisconsin Public Television, knew that she had stumbled upon something powerful.

"I'm an older white woman who didn't know anything about spoken word," Littig said. "But after seeing it, I was so moved that I felt a lot of people should know about it."

And she did just that. Tonight, "Teen Connection," in a live call-in format, will feature the burgeoning art form called spoken word.

Spoken word, which began to spread in the 1980's, is a form of poetry written specifically to be performed aloud. Its themes often involve social and economic problems as well as personal and political conflicts.

The unique art form gained widespread popularity following the release of the movie "Slam Nation" in 1998 and after HBO's "Def Poetry Jam," hosted by actor and rapper Mos Def, premiered in 2002.Isabel Medina, a junior at Madison West High School and participant on tonight's show, best defines spoken word's intricate nature.

"Spoken word poetry is essentially a combination of every genre of poetry," according to Medina. "It's a revival of hip-hop; it's a tribute to classical poetry; and it's sonnets and it's beat-poetry all wrapped into one."

Medina will be joined on "Teen Connection: The Spoken Word Revolution/Movement" by two other teen poets: Lyiya Miles, a freshman at Madison Area Technical College, and Kyle Parker, a senior attending the Milwaukee High School of the Arts.

Also featured on the program will be Willie Ney, executive director of the UW-Madison Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives and founder and coordinator of "Youth Speaks Wisconsin." Ney said that with spoken word, seeing is believing.

"There's a lot of skepticism until people see it," he said. "Then the moment you witness this experience of total raw, beautiful energy, where these kids are saying things from the bottoms of their soul, you'll change your opinion."

According to Ney, Youth Speaks Wisconsin is the first university-based urban arts and spoken word initiative in the nation. YSW is an off-shoot of "Youth Speaks," a San Francisco organization for spoken word poetry whose founder, James Kass, is a UW alum.

Ney first realized the potential for the art form in Madison when internationally renowned spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph performed at Madison West in 2003 for an assembly.

Ney said that he was "amazed at how Bamuthi was able to engage and excite students of all racial backgrounds."

With the urging of Kass, who had received word of Bamuthi's influence, Ney became more and more involved in spoken word as a means to help voiceless, less fortunate teens, approximately 85 percent of which he says are minorities. Since then, Ney's life has become consumed with spoken word.

Medina's initial introduction to spoken word was equally as influential. The turning point for Medina came at the age of 10, when she ordered a book about "slam poetry," which is spoken word in a competitive judged format.

"It completely changed my perspective on poetry and writing in general," she said. "It was such an amazing eye-opener to read this stuff."

Josh Healy, 22, of Madison, will also be featured on "Teen Connection." Healy, who recently won Madison's 2007 poetry slam competition, serves as the outreach coordinator for YSW. Healy is also one of four members who comprise the spoken-word group called "The Last Minute Poets" and is co-host of the spoken word radio program on Saturday nights called "The Cipher Zone" on WORT 89.9 FM.

Today there are YSW clubs in all of Madison's major high schools. Ney said his organization consistently receives invitations to perform all over the state. Some YSW members were even invited to be featured presenters along with Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton for a women's empowerment workshop last October.

In an effort to integrate spoken word into the classroom, Ney holds "teacher initiatives" during the summer to train educators in implementing spoken word into the curriculum.

Littig attended last summer's teacher initiative and was so surprised by spoken word's potential that she decided to highlight the training sessions on Tuesday's program.

"It was really pretty exciting," Littig said. "This is a way educators can learn to think outside the box, because the kids' stories really need to be told. The teachers will now be able to understand their students on a level they never knew before."

Tonight's "Teen Connection" program kicks off a week of spoken word and hip-hop, culminating in the Teen Poetry Slam Finals on Saturday at the Union Theater. The slam competition will be followed by a performance by Bamuthi, which will kick off his stay at the UW as the spring 2007 Artist in Residence. Bamuthi will perform around the community in addition to teaching semester-long interdepartmental courses.

Medina, who has competed in slam competitions before, said they are nerve-wracking but well worth it.

"It's such an intense rush and it's such a high because poetry is putting a piece of yourself up there, raw and exposed," she said. "It's terrifying, exhilarating and wonderful to feel like you got a chance to speak your mind." Ney hopes this "Teen Connection" will bring teens a positive voice, which he said isn't coming from MTV or the mainstream. He believes it will help to "bring the positivity of underground hip-hop overground."

Because, according to Ney, "If you can change the message, you can change the world."

\ On TV

"Teen Connection," a live call-in show, will feature spoken word poetry tonight from 7 to 8 on WPT (Ch. 21).

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