September 29, 1996

Spoken-word movement is retooling the use of the rhymes and rhythms that are the foundation of rap music, discarding its violent imagery, drugs, misogyny and recording-studio gimmickry and keeping the music that may accompany it in the background; movement has been evolving in clubs, cafes and workshops for several years, well before the soul-searching prompted by the slaying of Tupac Shakur; poets examine issues of passion, pain and poverty, and their heroes are less likely to be Shakur and Snoop Doggy Dogg than literary figures like Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets, the village elders of rap; photos (M)

Profile of K-III Communications Corp and Henry R Kravis's role in management of flagship publication, New York Magazine; Kravis has been trying to turn around K-III for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, and his hand is seen in dismissal of New York editor Kurt Andersen after he defied Kravis and ran article on rivalry between Felix Rohatyn and Steven Rattner, two powerful investment bankers; magazine people are dismayed at turn of events, which point up Kravis's overriding interest in bottom line, and fact that magazine is almost inconsequential in K-III magazine group; photos; graph; K-III executives dismiss editorial issues, saying Andersen simply failed to meet financial expectations (L)

Death creates no stark, impenetrable wall between the living and the dead in Japan, particularly in rural towns like Omiya, where the dead remain an integral part of the household, offering comfort and counsel to the living; the dead are believed to become Buddhas, and the main place to be with a loved once who has died is in front of the Buddhist altar, which can be found in almost every home in Omiya; photos; map (M)

Behind the Wheel column assesses 1997 Saturn Coupe; photos; charts (M)

Palestinian policemen who fired on Israeli soldiers in Gaza Strip on Sept 26 appear to have acted from accumulating frustrations over the last two years and the awkward position they face in having to work to protect a peace agreement that is the source of increasingly bitter feelings in the neighborhoods where they live; commanders also point out that the undisciplined, uneducated generation that spent its formative years throwing stones at Israeli soldiers is a difficult one to remake into a conventional police force (M)