I am one of those poets who wanted to wing her performances without completing a standardized course on performance poetry. I was an avid follower of many spoken word poets I still fangirl over and granted, watching is not exactly learning but it seemed to work for me. I'm a sponge.
Recently, I was asked to be on a judges panel for a poetry slam in my city and the Type A monster in me was ready to devour any and all material that would help me give more insight to the participants - and devour all the material, I did.
While I came across some great, personalized advice and tips for a good performance, some of the things people said were outright absurd. Here are a few of those stroke-inducing "tips."
1. Everyone expects you to be amazing!
Okay. Well. What about your own expectation of yourself? If it's your first time, no one in their right mind expects you to be amazing. I have met amazing writers who cannot for the life of them, will the courage to speak in public. Doesn't make them any less amazing, if you ask me. A mentor is supposed to know where you're starting from. Say, crippling fear of public speaking is 0. Telling that student to just, "be amazing!" isn't going to make them amazing! In fact, showing them first-timers wow everyone is probably going to make them feel worse.
Not to mention, spoken word poetry is supposed to take a break from the oh-so-high, inaccessible pedestal we keep page poetry on so let me just reiterate: I don't want you to be amazing - I want you to make a goal for yourself from where you are now, and work like hell to get there, if that's what you want. Being amazing is the most subjective, high-horse bullshit I have ever heard.
2. Be dramatic! But not that dramatic... oh god, STOP.
If you've just finished writing a poem that you think qualifies as spoken word, THAT IS FANTASTIC. You know what else is fantastic? The fact that you, yourself, know how well or how badly each line conveys exactly what you mean to say. And since you're the curator of this future masterpiece, start by underlining the lines that make your inner narcissist go, "MMM!"
Not every performance has to be an over-the-top stand-up where people have to laugh. You can make people laugh with the strangest things - especially sad ones - because nothing makes you laugh quite as much as things you can relate to. Dry humor makes people laugh even more.
Nothing will help you more than trying every line out for your own tongue. See which voice seems to get your point across best. DO NOT LISTEN to people who don't know what your poem is about - almost always, they don't know what you want it to say.
3. Don't let people know you forgot your poem.
Short of repeating myself but poetry is on its way to becoming an accessible, dethroned art form and people who refuse to accept that are the problem. If you forget your poem and have a tendency to make it worse by covering it up, take a deep breath, have a laugh and start over. It's okay.
Please don't be afraid to show people you're human. One of the soundest pieces of advice I have received is that the eye contact you make with your audience is the most human moment of your life because here you are, baring your soul to them, and fortunately, human souls aren't perfect. You're allowed to make mistakes and forget your train of thought. You can always make up for it with the conviction in the voice that delivers your poem.
4. If your poem is political, don't be too angry about it!
This one, by far, makes the least sense to me. While it's true that command over your emotions and expressions is crucial to a great political poem, if you want to show me that the political situation breaks your soul the hell down, by all means do it. If it appalls you, don't even pretty it up. The truth matters and everyone seems to forget that poetry is one of the best ways to exhibit the cold, hard truth. Sometimes, we can make it pretty, other times, we just can't.
Dry humor is still amazing, though.
5. Have fun with your poem.
I am guilty of standing by this one through thick and thin. While every video has said this, along with, "be natural," no one seems to show you how to do so. If you practise a poem long enough, it'll become a chore for you to be good at it. This will happen even if your poem is the best poem ever written and you are the best performer the world has ever seen.
You have to take breaks rehearsing your poem, and you don't want to recite it so many times you have a hard time getting your conviction back. It's the other way around; try to find something good about your poem every time you perform it, something that makes you stand taller every time you get up to say it out loud - maybe the way your eyes twinkle when you drift off, or that your cadence is flawless or maybe that every time you finish, it's something like this:
Basically: try to find the best version of your performance by yourself first. If you need help after that, there are a number of actual sources that help you do so. The internet is a beautiful, consuming thing - sometimes it just makes me mad.
Best of luck to the participants! Hope I could provide some annoying comic relief. Register here if you haven't already. We'll be waiting for you to show us you. <3
Recently, I was asked to be on a judges panel for a poetry slam in my city and the Type A monster in me was ready to devour any and all material that would help me give more insight to the participants - and devour all the material, I did.
While I came across some great, personalized advice and tips for a good performance, some of the things people said were outright absurd. Here are a few of those stroke-inducing "tips."
1. Everyone expects you to be amazing!
Okay. Well. What about your own expectation of yourself? If it's your first time, no one in their right mind expects you to be amazing. I have met amazing writers who cannot for the life of them, will the courage to speak in public. Doesn't make them any less amazing, if you ask me. A mentor is supposed to know where you're starting from. Say, crippling fear of public speaking is 0. Telling that student to just, "be amazing!" isn't going to make them amazing! In fact, showing them first-timers wow everyone is probably going to make them feel worse.
Not to mention, spoken word poetry is supposed to take a break from the oh-so-high, inaccessible pedestal we keep page poetry on so let me just reiterate: I don't want you to be amazing - I want you to make a goal for yourself from where you are now, and work like hell to get there, if that's what you want. Being amazing is the most subjective, high-horse bullshit I have ever heard.
2. Be dramatic! But not that dramatic... oh god, STOP.
If you've just finished writing a poem that you think qualifies as spoken word, THAT IS FANTASTIC. You know what else is fantastic? The fact that you, yourself, know how well or how badly each line conveys exactly what you mean to say. And since you're the curator of this future masterpiece, start by underlining the lines that make your inner narcissist go, "MMM!"
Not every performance has to be an over-the-top stand-up where people have to laugh. You can make people laugh with the strangest things - especially sad ones - because nothing makes you laugh quite as much as things you can relate to. Dry humor makes people laugh even more.
Nothing will help you more than trying every line out for your own tongue. See which voice seems to get your point across best. DO NOT LISTEN to people who don't know what your poem is about - almost always, they don't know what you want it to say.
3. Don't let people know you forgot your poem.
Short of repeating myself but poetry is on its way to becoming an accessible, dethroned art form and people who refuse to accept that are the problem. If you forget your poem and have a tendency to make it worse by covering it up, take a deep breath, have a laugh and start over. It's okay.
Please don't be afraid to show people you're human. One of the soundest pieces of advice I have received is that the eye contact you make with your audience is the most human moment of your life because here you are, baring your soul to them, and fortunately, human souls aren't perfect. You're allowed to make mistakes and forget your train of thought. You can always make up for it with the conviction in the voice that delivers your poem.
4. If your poem is political, don't be too angry about it!
This one, by far, makes the least sense to me. While it's true that command over your emotions and expressions is crucial to a great political poem, if you want to show me that the political situation breaks your soul the hell down, by all means do it. If it appalls you, don't even pretty it up. The truth matters and everyone seems to forget that poetry is one of the best ways to exhibit the cold, hard truth. Sometimes, we can make it pretty, other times, we just can't.
Dry humor is still amazing, though.
5. Have fun with your poem.
I am guilty of standing by this one through thick and thin. While every video has said this, along with, "be natural," no one seems to show you how to do so. If you practise a poem long enough, it'll become a chore for you to be good at it. This will happen even if your poem is the best poem ever written and you are the best performer the world has ever seen.
You have to take breaks rehearsing your poem, and you don't want to recite it so many times you have a hard time getting your conviction back. It's the other way around; try to find something good about your poem every time you perform it, something that makes you stand taller every time you get up to say it out loud - maybe the way your eyes twinkle when you drift off, or that your cadence is flawless or maybe that every time you finish, it's something like this:
At the end of your performance, your poem will make you feel a lot of things. If it felt good to pour your heart out, bless up. If it left your stomach feeling knotty, that's a side effect of telling the hard truth and that pain is a medal of honor - wear it proudly.
Basically: try to find the best version of your performance by yourself first. If you need help after that, there are a number of actual sources that help you do so. The internet is a beautiful, consuming thing - sometimes it just makes me mad.
Best of luck to the participants! Hope I could provide some annoying comic relief. Register here if you haven't already. We'll be waiting for you to show us you. <3
