Spill The Beans Poetry Reading

On Tuesday, I attended the Poetry Reading of the Advance Poetry Workshop Class. Each reader is a student in this class, and read a poem from their "master poet," as well as their original poetry. The first reader, and my personal favorite, was Calli Berry. Her master pet was Terrance Hayes, and she read his poem "Voice Driven." She chose him as her master poet because of the voice he uses in his poetry. The first original poem she read was "The Avocado." This poem was about the abolition of slavery and the following revolution. Included in this poem were certain staples of abolitionism, such as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Martin Luther King Jr.. One of the phrases she used in the poem that I found very enticing was "drunk on the sweet juice of revolution," speaking of the jubilation that these pioneers in the abolition of slavery felt. She also referred to the avocado as "the alligator pear," which is a nod to the title, "the avocado." The next poem she read was "cyber optimism." This was the story of her hardworking father who lives his life to support her and her absent, shopaholic, materialistic mother. She asks her mother "if he knows," to which she responds "no he doesn't," which is interpreted as the mother having an affair. Although we see her distaste for her mother, she admits that she would rather be like her mother than live a miserable life, much like her father. The next poet was Micah Van Strien, whose master poet is Jennifer Godst. He read "The Umbrella" by Godst. The one poem he read was about his friend becoming a father, and his internal struggle to step up into the role of a father and to maintain his childish ways with his friends. Next up was Adam Smith, who read "Miami in September" by his master poet, Carrie St. George Comer. The poem he read was of a Holocaust survivor who is dying of cancer. I felt that it was very ironic that this woman could survive the Holocaust, and then die to a ruthless killer, cancer. He also compared Hitler to the cancer. Suzi Asom was up next, who read "French Toast," by her master pet Susan Wise. Her own poem was entitled "What I Know About Wanda," which is about a very outspoken girl who she refers to as a run-on sentence, mainly because she doesn't know "when to stop" or "use a period." Next was a very vibrant poet, Lukaste Fuller. He chose a master poet much like himself, Jeffery McDaniel, who speaks with a sharp tongue, and hilarious juxtaposition. His own poem that he read was "The Old People Say Mysterious Things," which was full of hilarious tidbits about the elderly. The last poet was Justin Holliday, who chose his master poet, Josh Belle, because of his usage of sex and violence to integrate life. His own poem that he read was "The South Will Rise Again." This poem was instigated by one of his northern friends seeing a bumper sticker which included the title of the poem. Within this poem, they spoke of eating grits at a diner, and even mentioned Tennessee Williams (I saw this as a nod to our English 215 class). I really enjoyed my first poetry reading, and would like to attend another one soon!

"Baptizing The Gun" by Uwem Akpan

This short story is a very thrilling one, and grabs the reader right from the "get-go." The beginning starts as a woman on a bus has her earring pulled out by a thief. The thief is caught, ringed with tires, doused in oil and set on fire. I was very appalled that this was the punishment because of how harsh it was, and the fact that it happened right then and there. The people watching even cheered as the thief's body burned in the night. On line 32, the narrator says that "no matter how scarce fuel is, there is always enough for the thief." I thought that this was interesting, because this situation would not occur in America, as it does in the story, which occurs in Lagos. The narrator lives in the Niger Delta, which has endured a huge oil fire that has killed a lot of people, and he has come to Lagos to ask wealthy parishes for aid. While he is driving back to his brother's place his car breaks down, and because he knows nothing about cars, he pushes it out of the way. Randomly, a man in a suit shows up offering to help him. I thought this situation was strange. The priest thinks that the man is going to harm him- I don't blame him for his paranoia at all, given the opening scene of this short story. His paranoia is only heightened as he sees that the man has a gun by his side. After the car is fixed, the man in the suit asks to ride with the priest. If I had been in this situation, I would have most definitely said no, but the priest has no choice. At this point, I am starting to think that this man in the suit ulterior motives. As they are driving, they are stopped by police and soldiers who are checking cars. We are told that the police and soldiers in Lagos are not good people, and that they are the second worse right behind Kenya. At the "Operation Sweep" stops the police were drinking and playing cards, much unlike our "donut-eating" police here in America. After they make it through the stop, the priest begins to make small-talk with the man in the suit in order to make him more comfortable. The priest had lied to the man about having on a Rolex watch, and he figured he should try to make the man in the suit warm up to him in order to prevent harm to his own life. When they arrive at their destination, the priest is very concerned, however the man tells him that he is only "escorting" him because of the violence in Lagos. During their journey, the car breaks down multiple times. The last time the car breaks down, they pay a mechanic standing on the side of the road to fix it for them. The mechanic says that a coil in the car is just overheated, and needs to place it in water to cool it down. The man in the suit reaches in his pocket, and the priest is certain that he is reaching for the gun, and that his fate is sealed. Instead, the priest realizes that the "gun" was certainly not a gun, but just a bulge created by a poorly folded handkerchief. The priest instantly felt guilty for judging the man. The two had been together for an entire day, with the priest judging the harmless man the entire time. As a reader, I even found myself judging the man in the suit along with the priest. This goes to show that you definitely cannot "judge a book by its cover." I found this short story very entertaining because of the intensity and action, which ended up being nothing after all. With many of the stories that we have read recently, this short story gives the reader an insight into a different country and culture, and one that is certainly not like our own. As for the title of the story, I looked up the actual definition of "baptism," and found that it means to ritually clean something. I believe that the title is drawn from the gun actually not being a gun, and therefore the imaginary gun was "baptized" or cleansed, as was the judgment of the man in the suit.