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!