Poetry & Theater
As I watched this piece for the umpteenth time, something in me that I had been dying to talk about for a while now was resurrected. Spoken Word poets are thespians. They step into characters that their words have personified. It’s almost as if they step on stage and become a completely different person. Brook Yung is great at this.
Watch as he silently prays before he transforms from B. Yung to Bianca, the blind young woman he brings alive in his poem. He spits the entire poem with his eyes rolled into his head. That is acting…at it’s best. Giving life to the script that his heart wrote. I never thought that I could do that. I never thought that I could captivate an audience with a presence that made them feel as if I was a completely different person when I stepped on stage.
Alexis Marie and Jasmine Manns are two incredibly talented young women who bring to life the characters in the poem entitled “Abortion Poem.” They go back and forth like the mother and the child that they speak of. They breath like them, talk like them, act like them. Jasmine has so much power in her voice that it becomes raspy and its as if she screams. These poets are amazing. I want to have that power behind my words. I want to walk away with a ghost of my poem still standing on stage, haunting the mic.
My dear sister friend, Farah Lawal, put an entire one-man show together last year with just her poetry. We watched her transform into different women as she quietly traced the edges of the stage with her footsteps. She was amazing. She is also an actress. I’m sure that her experience as an actress contributed a lot to her performance as a poet.
For my spoken word poets, do you consider yourself an actor when you step on stage? No longer yourself but transformed into a character depicted in your poem?
Artomatic
This weekend I decided to finally support one of my good friends and soror. As I ventured out onto the unfinished streets of D.C. on Saturday, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect (from the event, not my friend). We were attending an event called Artomatic on M St. in SW. We walked into a huge building that looked like it might be an office building once it’s finished. We took the elevator with a bunch of tourists to the 3rd floor and stepped out into a wide, open, unfinished space.
The space was filled with art work. Paintings, sculptures, masks, photos, tattoos, EVERYTHING! It was surreal. I felt like a real adult. It was awesome. We walked around to the “solo stage” which really was a stage with one lonesome microphone and two speakers towering each side. When we walked up there was a young girl with a very monotone speaking and singing voice strumming an acoustic guitar and singing a song that I could barely understand the words to. She mumbled most of the words and then abruptly ended the guitar and stood and just spoke words (not really sure if it was spoken word or not, it was kind of creepy if you asked me).
Anyways, after the young woman stepped down from the stage another stepped up. She was a beautiful kind of earthy looking woman wearing greens, yellows and browns with big hair. Her personality was really upbeat and spunky as she introduced the next couple of performers.
Farah Lawal is my friend/sister/soror. I love her. She is an amazing actress, poet and just all around performer. She is an awesome inspiration to me and I’m sure many other people that have seen her performances. When she steps onto the stage, I feel like she becomes a totally different person. A very laid back more reserved personality becomes a fierce voice of a poet seeking to change the world one poem at a time. She performed three peices one of which was called “My Wedding Day” where she talks about anticipating this blissful day.
Farah is a graduate of the University of Maryland College Park and currently works full time and is pursuing her career as an actress full time as well. She is also a member of the Saartjie Project which is a group of performers who are inspired by the life of Saartjie (Sara) Baartman.
Farah, as a performer has inspired me to not only be a better writer, but a better person THROUGH my writing. I enjoyed supporting her this weekend and I look forward to supporting her at her upcoming performance “So Do You Love Me Yet?” If you’re interested, check out her website and to purchase tickets visit the Capital Fringe Festival website.
