Peace and blessings,
last night(Wed), we had our weekly slam and i came in 2nd place out of seven poets. it felt good to be around other people that write. its not the SAME vibe that i get from being at Legacy, but it still felt good. the winner last night(Wed), Shugga Shane, is a good writer AND a great performer. he use of body language and verbal tempo during his pieces is outstanding. And THATS what i need to do...learn how to change my verbal tempo when performing. i also need to add, just a liiiiiittle more flavor to the pieces. it was a close finish though....so close that i threw away the idea of doing "NEW" pieces and broke out an old faithful for the last round.
having only been performing less than a year, im still happy with my the progress. i learn something new EACH time i take the stage. Something that will make me better at this art form that i love so much. the hardest thing for me, is memorizing a piece. after deciding to slam at Southern Fried 05 (my very first slam), it took me two months to memorize two pieces. the choice to slam was made in February, Southern Fried was in June. At the time, i was working only one job and not working a lot of hours. Now, its two jobs, more hours...less free time. And thats without adding the Courtney (my 12 going on 25 year old daughter) factor into the equation.
but its kewl...where there is a will, there is a way. the Creator didnt put the pen back into my hand and granted me countless blessing to do what i do for no reason. all this has a purpose and for once, i plan on seeing something through! so, that my kids, family and friends can be proud of me for once.
thats all for now....
onelove
5 comments:
Congratulations! I wanted to share a tip on memorizing. I've won 2 slams so far and I really think what made me come out on top was that I was one of the only people to memorize all of my pieces. My secret? Recording. I would record myself saying the pieces and then play it back in my car. I used my computer and then burned it to a CD but a tape recorder would work as well. I memorized the piece while I did it over and over to get a quality recording and then play it in the car and say it over and over too. Just a tip...again congratulations, your passion for poetry is inspiring.
thanks you, i might try that in the future!
yes I know about this blog
congrats on the slam, and i know all too well the agony of memorizing...wonder if its an aries thing..haha. i hope u do stop by neosoul sometime, sarah speaks of u often.
i'm a newbie at performing as well. it is hard getting out of the comfort zone of what u call call home..for me neosoul.
but as u said, it is a learning process...i love it.
gotta say, unsaid: i think as poets we are tricked into believing its the fact that you memorize a piece. i think that's arguable. i believe, if the piece is fire on paper - it can and will be fire on the stage. most poets dont know how to leave the page while performing from IT. they are kinda leaning on the page as a crutch. whereas, beau sia and mayda del valle (who won the indie nats ON PAPER) have proven that it's possible.
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