Last night, I had the great good fortune to attend Patricia Smith's reading at the University of Arkansas Little Rock, sponsored by the UALR English Department and flawlessly planned by Professor Nickole Brown. I knew the Smith came from a background of slam competition before turning to poetry of the page, so I anticipated an exciting night. I was not disappointed.
No demure and docile poet here, no staid professor intoning with great seriousness. Smith's voice soared and dipped as she captivated us all. While I was looking forward to hearing poems from Blood Dazzler and was a bit sad that Smith only read two from that book, I thoroughly enjoyed each poem she presented. Smith is an expert with the persona poem, taking on the voice of John Lee Hooker, Tyrell (a barbershop owner in Chicago), Ethel Freeman (a woman who died outside the Convention Center in New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and, in the book if not last night, the voice of Katrina herself.
The best thing about Smith's reading style is that she does not sacrifice the poetry for the performance. Throughout the poems, the attention to language, rhythm, and sound shines through, even while Smith brings the words to life on the stage. As a page poet with little background in theatre, I found a lot I might learn from Smith, most importantly, another affirmation that it is okay to love the words and let that love come through in the reading. During my days in graduate school, there was a way of thinking that tried to stomp this out of us. We were told to read "straight" and not let our voice rise and fall, not caress the words or add extra emphasis with body or timbre. (This, the kind of reading that brought me to poetry in the first place, when I heard the likes of Joy Harjo, Quincy Troupe, and Li-Young Lee and they drew me into their magic spells.) Slowly, I'm shaking loose that straightjacket, and I am more than thankful for Patricia Smith for showing me the way, again.
Finally, I'll be looking forward to April when Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, Smith's new book, comes out from Coffee House Press.
4 comments:
Thanks for this write-up. I'm intrigued by the issue you bring up of how much expression to allow ... whether it's okay to "love the words and let that love come through in the reading." When I read my work (which is not too terribly often) I read straight. But I always LOVE it when poets read their work with lots of oomph......
Thanks for the input, Molly. I do think there is a matter of taste here, and I don't ever want the love of the words to mask weak poems, which I think is why a lot of people don't advocate for more of a performance. However, I think that the pressure to read straight did me more harm than good as I was so unformed at the time and lacked all confidence about my work. (I'm showing a battle scar here, I know.)
She will be coming down here to Arizona, in a few months for the annual Tucson Poetry Festival, so I was already looking forward to her workshop and reading.
But your post makes me look forward to it, a little more anxiously.
Ooh, Shawnte, sounds awesome. I'm sure she will rock Tucson as well.
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