Poetry readings bring words to life and on November 11, 2010 at the Macaulay Building on West 67th Street, four poets collaborated for a reading called “Courting Risk.” The poets attempted to use dramatics, visuals and their booming voices to connect with the audience but sometimes fell short, leaving their words hollow and enthusiasm uninspiring. Although the poets touched upon sensitive ideas, the overall feel of the poetry reading was lackluster and the poetry could have been expressed better.
Khadijah Queen, the MC and organizer of the event, took the stage first to read from her book Black Peculiar. Although she had a deep voice and created vivid imagery through her words, she seemed uncomfortable on stage and stuttered many times. This lessened the impact of her words and the poetry lost its strength. Randall Horton, a professor at University of New Haven, read next and used his suave voice, charisma and personality to connect with the audience. He laughed and interacted with the audience but at times, it was difficult to decipher his words. I could not follow the meaning of some poems because I could not understand what he was saying, which took away from his overall presence at the podium.
Ariel Robello came to the stage next and her words were personified and dramatized through acting. With half her face painted to represent a skull, she captured the audience with her story of abuse, alcohol and death. She used her voice to convey her message but also fell to her knees, acted out an internal conflict and became the character in her poem, “Count to 10.” The poem was the most interesting of the night because of the three topics it explored: abuse, alcohol and death. The last poet was Latasha Nevada-Diggs who focused on cultures and upbringings in different environments. Her use of words from other languages was unique but also boring because the listeners couldn’t comprehend her message.
The poetry reading, lifeless throughout, reached its climax when Robello took the stage. She was passionate about her words and gave them a true life form by becoming the character. The ideas she explored of abuse, alcohol and death were especially deep and the audience went away with a new outlook on issues that are common in our society. I have never been in a household with domestic abuse but the way that Robello portrayed the negatives of it on men, women and children demonstrated the ruthless nature of it.
Whenever I go to a poetry reading, I always wonder how the words are interpreted by a reader when they read it alone and how their reaction is different when they hear it from the poet themselves. I asked the poets their thoughts on this during the question and answer session and Mr. Horton responded, “There is a level of understanding involved. When the reader reads it, he may not get something, but when a poet reads their poetry aloud, they can create the environment that the reader becomes engulfed in.” Poets are not only reading words from a paper but are also trying to create a setting for the listener to visualize. They want to create characters that audience members can imagine and relate to.
The reading was uninteresting and monotonous at times; Robello was powerful but the other poets did not have the stage presence to keep an audience engaged. The strength of the poetry reading was the different ways the poets chose to present their poems, as they didn’t limit themselves to only their voices, but also, used different forms of expression such as direct interaction with the audience, theater and visuals. However, this was the only strength I found in the reading because the audience was bored, the words seemed meaningless at times and I found myself uninterested for the majority of it. Poetry readings have the potential to be moving but “Courting Risk” did not deliver; hopefully, future poetry readings I attend have poets with more stage presence, confidence and the ability to keep an audience engaged throughout.
Courtesy of: CourtingRisk.com
Khadija Queen, the curator of “Courting Risk” and poet, performing at an event for “Courting Risk” in Denver
Nice review. Your fourth and last paragraph could be combined, since they repeat.