~Poetry Readings~ 11/14/12~

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On Wednesday in seminar we continued our poetry presentations.  My favorite poem which was recited was Brendon’s poem “Check Mate” by Lucio Mariani.  The poem spoke about a man’s life and death and his hopes for the future. The speaker of this poem was deceased, and once this fact became clear the poem acquired a very dark and interesting perspective.  This poem struck me because it brought me back to September 11, 2001 and made me think about the lives of all of the people lost on that day, including my cousin firefighter John A. Santore.  What if these people could speak? What would they say?  What would they think about how their loved ones have moved on…or in some cases, haven’t? This particular speaker was thinking about his father who is most likely all alone now that his son has passed away, and his mother who was never part of his life.  He hopes that now that he is dead, people will remember him and his life.  This poem is a unique tribute to the victims of September 11th, because it is told from the point of view of one of the deceased victims.  I have read books where the story is told from the dead, but I had never read a poem where the speaker was deceased, and I appreciate this poem for its unique voice.

In addition to “Check Mate” I enjoyed focusing on the rhythm of poetry.  I enjoyed listening to Rob recite his poem by Langston Hughes with piano accompaniment.  It felt as if the poem came with it’s own soundtrack, and it was easy to fall into the rhythm of the words when it was presented in this format.

~Naomi

Corinna 11-14-12

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Wednesday’s seminar class was yet another day dedicated to poetry presentations.  Even before the first round of presentations, I remember thinking that by the end, I would probably lose interest.  As it turns out, this was far from true.  Every presentation so far has had something special about it.  For example, during Wednesday’s seminar class, Robert recited his poem, “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes, to a tune played on the piano.  The music made it more entertaining than when he first read it.  Because of this addition, I paid more attention to the words and the message of the poem. I felt as though I was in a different time period, listening to an artist perform a piece about his own personal experience.  Another example is James’ presentation, which stood out for the amount of enthusiasm and theatrics that were involved.  However, the poem that he was assigned was very unique and entertaining even on its own.  I loved the idea that a poem with so few actual words could not only have such meaning, but also be so relatable.  Just like in the poem, I feel as though I have disappointed my family by not knowing the language they grew up speaking.  Although I know that I am an American, I find myself having a hard time drawing the line between the two cultures I associate myself with.  To help make this piece a bit lighter and less serious, it seems the writer makes fun of the English language. This poem had me thinking about the flaws and illogical construction of our language, which I feel contributes to my struggle every time I have a writing assignment.

11/14

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Today in seminar class we had more poetry presentations. So far, I have seen everyone in the class come out of their comfort zone with these presentations and they have done extremely well with their presentations. Every day so far we have had a lot of fun with these presentations. From getting a good laugh out of me trying to not end every sentence like a question, to shouting out BangClash, we have had a lot of fun with these presentations, and today was no different. During the second half of Brendon’s presentation, some of us had a chance to rap in class. Everyone had a funny rap to say and it was fun watching my classmates be put on the spot and put together a few rhymes. It was also interesting to see Brendon perform his poem as a rap.

All of the performances were great today. I enjoyed James’s presentation of Ing-grish by Joh Yau. I thought that his poem was very amusing. He had a poem that was tailored for his personality, and he did a great job of performing it with his hand gestures and the inflections in his voice.

I was very impressed with Rob’s poem. It was nice to see his poem read alongside a piece of music. There are a lot of songs that I consider to be poetry combined with music, but I had never thought that actual poetry could be combined with music.

I was also very impressed with Penina’s presentation. I am used to seeing her as a quiet person, which is the complete opposite of what I saw when she performed her poem. She became a different person and performed her poem with a lot of emotion, which was very impressive.

Seminar Class 11/14/12

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On wednesday, the class continued with their poem recitation presentations. Even though I already presented my poem, I was still nervous for my classmates who still had to present their poems. However, I was very impressed with the way they recited their poems. Everyone did a great job and I enjoyed every poem that was read that day.

One poem that I really enjoyed was James’ poem. He read Ing Grish by Joh Yau. His poem was about a chinese-american whose parents immigrated to America from China. Although he could not speak chinese, the poet pokes fun at the english language and how difficult it is for chinese speaking americans to pronounce some english words. I loved the humor involved with this poem and I thought it was the perfect one for James to preform. James presented this poem with the exact humor it needed. His accent and his hang gestures truly made it very entertaining for his classmates.

Another poem that I really enjoyed was Penina’s poem. She read New York at Night by Amy Lowell. This poem was about how New York City has changed during the night. Before, the city used to shut down at night time. Now, since the city was in the process of modernizing, the poet is understanding the true meaning of “The city that never sleeps.” However, the poet treats this new modernization of New York in an unappreciable  way. I was very surprised by Penina’s performance. Since she is a very quiet girl, I never expected her to perform with such character and emotion. She went outside her comfort zone and gave a great performance.

I think that my classmates are doing a great job presenting all of their poems. Even though some were more difficult than others, everyone put all their heart and focus into their poems, which was very noticeable by the rest of the class. I look forward to hearing the rest of the poems on monday’s class.

 

Stephanie Solanki, 11/14/12

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Today in Seminar class, we resumed performing our poems. I was blown away once again by the amount of thought and love each person has put into their poems. I have yet to present, and it is because I feel that my poem is one that would be a great last act. It’s a very patriotic poem, and would leave a good impression on the class. I think that I am very prepared to present on Monday after watching the constructive criticism that Dr. Kahan gave to each presenter. I think that it will make my poem that much better.

I loved Rob’s poem. He performed it very well; it was the perfect poem for him. I loved when Dr. Kahan played the blues on the piano while Rob performed his poem. I felt like I should have started snapping! It was very powerful. The music added flow and rhythm to the poem. It was easy to “get in the groove” when Dr. Kahan played music. I could feel the poem come to life. It was really moving.

I really liked the way James performed his poem. It inspires me to let go of all my inhibitions and perform the poem to do justice to the poem. I really cannot wait to perform. I have been waiting for a long time, and I want to make my poem stand out. Hopefully, I can.

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11.14.12

For today’s class we continued the poetry presentations. I’m going to start with the last performance of the day, Penina’s reading of “New York at Night” by Amy Lowell. I was very surprised when Penina started reading. I wasn’t expecting one of the quietest people in our class to start off as strongly as she did. I especially enjoyed how the last time she read it; she emphasized certain words to give the poem more of a visual image. I think it’s interesting to consider when the poet lived, 1874-1925, during the Industrial Revolution. Even thinking back to Washington Square, I was surprised to hear that parts of New York City where pretty uninhabited. As the city became more urban, more people began moving there so, it must have been strange to see trees replaced with factories and apartment buildings.

Another memorable performance was Rob’s reading of “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes. When Professor Kahan played background music for Rob, I could envision this poem being read in a speakeasy. I thought the background music Professor Kahan played for Rob to get into the groove of the poem not only helped him but also the class as listeners. While Rob read his poem for the last time, I was also playing the music in my head.

James performed “Ing Grish” by John Yau. I thought this poem was going to just be a little funny poem with little meaning but I was wrong. The literary devices used in the poem are not simple and the meaning is a pretty deep one. I think in one reading the meaning might fly over someone’s mind but upon careful and repeated reading, the true meaning of the poem is revealed. I think it was daring for the poet to write a poem with so much meaning in a comical way.

-Amber G.

Poetry Recitation-3 11/14 Ariana Z.

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Tuesday night, the class was given the chance to see Professor Kahan in concert at CSI. As the Chamber Music Collective performed the pieces by Claude Debussy I recognized what professor Kahan had said about Debussy’s music seemingly having no true beginning or ending. As whimsical and enjoying as it was, there were many moments where I thought the piece had ended, and almost began to clap. I soon realized that the audience and I had to wait for cues from the musician to signify the piece was officially over. This uncertainty of its ending appealed to me, actually. Overall, I can say that the night was a great opportunity to listen to music that I otherwise would not have encountered.

On Wednesday’s seminar class we continued our poetry recitations. Brendon’s poem “Check Mate” seemed to be the poem we analyzed most. I thought that the connections between the chess game and 9/11 were quite brilliant. At first, I thought it was peculiar how the poet chose to use the word “fat finger” to describe where he grew up. As the poem went on however I saw the connection between the chess game and hands–which you play chess with.

Another motif that seemed to occur in the poem was the presence of “doubles.” With the twin towers, two cigarettes, two players in a game of chess and the presence of two rooks per player it is something you cannot ignore. I think the fact that I noticed all of these doubles is because it reminded me of Hitchcock’s Stranger on a Train, a film where seeing double is an understatement. Another thing that I found interesting was that the two cigarettes smoked by the poets father also represented the passing of time. Rather than taking the usual pack of cigarettes to finish their game, the poet and his father took only the time of two cigarettes to finish the game. Undoubtedly, from the excitement of his first accountants check. Ultimately, I enjoyed the poem and the cleverness of the connections.

Monday 11/12- Andrew

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This Monday our class was visited by professor Richard Powers. He is a very intelligent man and I enjoyed his well organized presentation of architecture. As a native New Yorker, architecture is a huge part of our culture. Manhattan is home to some of the worlds finest architectural achievements such as the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Central Park, and the Brooklyn Bridge. Prof. Powers informed us that architecture is meant to capture the ethnos, or culture, of a society. Beginning the discussion with the Parthenon, the ruins of which stand in Greece. The temple is dedicated to the goddess Athena, and the architecture is said to symbolize reason, intelligence, and power in Western society. It is an instantly recognizable structure by its great pillars and rectangular structure. It was interesting to learn that the US capitol building was constructed with inspiration from ancient Greek architecture, and that both buildings were meant to symbolize similar ideals.

Some of my favorite structures I observed during the presentation were of design by Frank Lloyd Wright. He was a breakthrough architect who inspired and awed many with his work. I really liked “Falling Water”. It is a beautiful home set in nature and represents humanity’s ability to become one with nature. Another favorite of mine is his own personal home and studio. It is mainly dark colors and to me has somewhat of a modern gothic appeal to it.

It was interesting to learn some people’s opinions that the twin towers were obtrusive  structures, and that they created disharmony in the New York skyline. Personally I thought they were beautiful buildings and symbolized New York’s social, cultural, and financial prominence in the world. Losing the towers was New York’s most severe tragedy, but I am happy to see they are finally replaced by the Freedom Tower. This new beautiful building is now an icon of New York’s resilience  and unity.

November 14, 2012

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On Wednesday in Seminar, we continued with the reading of our poems. Brendon was first, discussing his poems Check Mate by Lucio Mariani and Birthplace by Michael Cirelli. The first poem is written from the point of view of a victim of 9-11. It tells the story of how he played chess with his father every night, and his father told him “to always watch out for those treacherous towers.” This sentence, like most of the poem, has a double meaning. In chess terms, “towers” would be the rooks, while in NYC, the “towers” would refer to the World Trade Center towers. The poem also speaks of how “it was special to grow up behind a hedge,” meaning that he had some grass or plant life at his house, instead of just concrete sidewalks of the city. Throughout the poem, however, it seems like he is still celebrating the times that he has spent with his father, even though he is deceased.

Next, James presented his poem Ing Grish, by John Yau. While this poem was by far the most comical, it carried one of the strongest messages. The poem begins with pairs of random and unrelated words such as dung and dungaree, and humdrum and humdinger. While the word pairs are unrelated to an English speaking person, a person who does not speak English would think that these words were related based on their prefixes. Dung refers to animal droppings, while dungarees are pants. They are two totally unrelated items that share the same prefix. The same goes for humdrum, which means dull and monotone and humdinger, which is a remarkable person or thing. They are complete and utter opposites, but still manage to share that same common prefix. In addition to poking fun at the construction of English words, Yau is making fun of English phonetics. For example, “Chinee, Chanel, and Cheyenne” all start with a ch- prefix, but have two different pronunciations. Chinee is pronounced with a hard Ch, while Chanel and Cheyenne are pronounced with a soft c- sounding like “shh.” As with everything else, in order to make fun of something at this level, you must understand it extremely well. Yau never learned Chinese, despite the hard pressure from his parents.

Finally, Penina read New York at Night by Amy Knoll. The poem was written in 1912 when the modern city was still developing. Before this time, major cities shut down at night and there wasn’t always a hustle and bustle. Now, we are starting to see that movement in the city never stops and that people are always moving. The structure of the poem can be compared to the city. The rhythm is uneven, dropping mid sentence and creating chaos. The poet also believes that the city itself is ugly. In addition to the structure being almost non-existent, the words she chooses to use are very violent and sharp sounding, due to the heavy use of consonants. At the end of the poem, questions are asked of why the people in the city never stop and rest. It all goes back to the fact that New Yorkers can do it all and it’s what New Yorkers are known for.

11/12/2012 – Shumaila

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On Monday, professor Richard Powers delivered a talk on architectural history. I had never really thought about how buildings actually capture the cultures of society and the time period when it was constructed during.  Professor Powers mentioned “Parthenon”, which was an iconic building of western civilization. The Parthenon was the center of society at the top of an acropolis that symbolized intellect.

I was especially interested when I learned that the US capitol building was built with ancient civilizations as an inspiration. The building modeled famous architectures of past successful powerful civilizations. I was also shocked to learn that the Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park are considered the greatest buildings of New York City.

It’s interesting to learn, because they are not even categorized as real buildings. However, they are the best places that capture the essence of New York better than many other places.  Also, many buildings in the south were actually modeled after Greek civilization. We learned that this was because the Greeks successfully ran a system of slavery for centuries. The southern states in America often considered this to be a model of what America should be like.

Our class with Professor Powers was quite interesting. It has definitely reformed the way I look at architecture on a day-to-day basis. I feel that now when I look around, I wont just see the buildings, but I’ll wonder why or how their designs came to be. I feel that I’ve gained insight on a topic that I would have never thought much about had it not been for my seminar class.