Love, sex to propel poetry night
Seventeen students decided four weeks ago that ‘What is Love?’ was a corny and cliché title.
They wanted something ‘catchy.’
‘Sex is the catch that most people may want to talk about,’ said Cedric Bolton, Verbal Blend program facilitator. ‘What love and sex are, how they deal with relationships.’
So Bolton and the 17 students agreed on ‘Love, Sex & Poetry.’
Verbal Blend’s first themed open mic will attract poets and singers, Bolton said, who will perform tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Room 001 of the Life Sciences Building. A sign-up to perform will begin before the open mic and close at 8:30 p.m.
Out of a number of names, ‘Love, Sex & Poetry’ best encompassed the theme that students of Bolton’s weekly workshop wanted to explore, he said. The name certainly worked better than ‘What is Love?,’ which Bolton suggested at the end of last year.
‘As we got closer to the date, students thought ‘What is Love?’ wasn’t representative,’ Bolton said. ‘So we decided to change the theme.’
Since the spring of 2007, Verbal Blend has educated students on the basics and performance of poetry: from structure to types of poems to how to perform body language. Open mics have put these lessons in the spotlight for the past four semesters, he said. But the difference this semester is in the name.
This time, open mic has a theme, a catchy one to attract both poets and an audience from the SU community.
How the poets discuss love doesn’t matter.
‘From religion to social issues to their first love to cats and dogs, it can go a number of places,’ Bolton said. ‘We want students to experiment.’
Experimentation is a crucial theme in Bolton’s program, in which he hopes students built lasting confidence through def jam, slam and spoken poetry. Whereas ‘page-piece’ poetry is designed to be in print, spoken word takes form on stage and tests one’s ability to perform in public.
‘It’s more about what poets are doing on stage, and how they craft their poems for their peers and community,’ Bolton said. ‘I expect to see movements, some drama and to get a little attitude.’
It’s what the students who attend his Verbal Blend workshop have been discussing in the weeks leading up to tonight.
‘It’s going to be very interesting,’ Bolton said.
Published on March 2, 2009 at 12:00 pm
