spoken word performance; oral arts
Refers to professional oral performance arts such as storytelling, narration, or recitation, often contrasted with written literature. Relatively formal or literary term.
He makes a living through the art of spoken word performance.
Both oral arts and writing are important ways of conveying words.
Compound of 舌 (tongue) and 耕 (cultivate), literally 'tongue cultivation'. The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but it metaphorically extends farming imagery to the art of oral performance.