Spring Break
Spoken word show a grand slam
VOCAL 2008, a benefit concert featuring nationally renowned slam poets, raised money for a local community center. The sold-out show electrified the audience, despite its over four-hour run time.
by Sarah Bayer
Assistant Arts Editor
Music | 1/22/08
Posted online at 11:42 PM EST on 1/21/08
/ Last updated at 10:12 AM EST on 1/21/08
"As long as we're under this roof, we are family," host Jamele Adams told the near-capacity crowd at VOCAL 2008 in Spingold Theater Saturday evening. The event, organized by Justin Kang '09, sought to raise money and awareness for after-school programs in Waltham. Its spoken-word format was sufficiently personal to make the large audience feel intimately connected with the performing poets yet political enough to fit the evening's spirit of social action.
Sixteen-year-old Noel Scales of Philadelphia started off the evening reciting two love poems, which struck a sometimes intimate, sometimes defiant tone. Her extraordinarily touching opener concerned a boyfriend's death in Iraq. HBO veteran Kayo followed with a witty and insightful memoir about a love affair with an older woman. He then recited a political poem that compared black history with the modern lifestyle of the black man.
Skinny, quirky George Watsky was next, with the night's most innovative piece. Watsky, a sophomore at Emerson College and a member of the grand prize-winning team from San Francisco at the National Youth Poetry Slam in 2006, adjusted the microphone to different parts of his body, imitated the sound of rewinding tape and recited binary code (a trope that caught the eye of headliner Saul Williams) in an altogether amusing performance. The mixture of nationally acclaimed poets with young amateur performers continued with Anthony Febo, who presented a pleasant but forgettable political diatribe on inequality and violence. Febo, of Lowell, Mass., gained a spot on Saturday night's bill as the winner of a competition held at More than Words Bookstore in Waltham. Student performers Alysia Harris of the University of Pennsylvania and Jason Simon-Bierenbaum '11, who helped organize the show, rounded out the student portion of the bill. Harris offered a highly original exploration of her identity as a minority growing up in the South, sharing both racial and regional implications, while Simon-Bierenbaum spoke about a childhood friend who joined the army.
Sixteen-year-old Noel Scales of Philadelphia started off the evening reciting two love poems, which struck a sometimes intimate, sometimes defiant tone. Her extraordinarily touching opener concerned a boyfriend's death in Iraq. HBO veteran Kayo followed with a witty and insightful memoir about a love affair with an older woman. He then recited a political poem that compared black history with the modern lifestyle of the black man.
Skinny, quirky George Watsky was next, with the night's most innovative piece. Watsky, a sophomore at Emerson College and a member of the grand prize-winning team from San Francisco at the National Youth Poetry Slam in 2006, adjusted the microphone to different parts of his body, imitated the sound of rewinding tape and recited binary code (a trope that caught the eye of headliner Saul Williams) in an altogether amusing performance. The mixture of nationally acclaimed poets with young amateur performers continued with Anthony Febo, who presented a pleasant but forgettable political diatribe on inequality and violence. Febo, of Lowell, Mass., gained a spot on Saturday night's bill as the winner of a competition held at More than Words Bookstore in Waltham. Student performers Alysia Harris of the University of Pennsylvania and Jason Simon-Bierenbaum '11, who helped organize the show, rounded out the student portion of the bill. Harris offered a highly original exploration of her identity as a minority growing up in the South, sharing both racial and regional implications, while Simon-Bierenbaum spoke about a childhood friend who joined the army.
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Aunt Kathie
posted 1/22/08 @ 2:59 PM EST
What an insightful review! I felt like I was there. Thanks for this excellent piece, I look forward to more of the same in the future.
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