On Performance Poetry and Posting on You Tube

March 28, 2012
by: SuperRed

“To do nothing is the way to be nothing.”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne

A couple of Tuesdays ago at the Artists' Union Gallery (AUG), I recited a piece of poetry I'd written a few years ago. I re-worked the poem, Last Sunday, by adding a few lines and taking away a few. There is quite a difference between standing up in front of an audience and performing a piece created by someone else and reading my own work. When reading or performing another author's work, such as performing in a play or reciting to a class, I express the emotion of the character, or act out the emotion I interpret to be there, but I can be distanced emotionally in my mind. When reciting my own work, the emotion is mine. I'm not only representing myself to the audience, I'm putting my own ideas and work out for others to listen to and, hopefully, enjoy. It is an intimate, exciting, and a little bit frightening experience. Fortunately, Tuesday night at the AUG is a friendly atmosphere. The poets want to see each other succeed.

After the open mic was completed and many wonderful poets shared their work, we had the post-reading gathering. During this part of the evening everyone worked together to put away the chairs, clean the coffee pots, and of course, eat up the last few cookies and brownies, while they talked. Since I started coming regularly to the AUG meetings a couple of months ago, I watched as first the other poets looked at me with indifference, then interest and after "putting myself out there" in performing my poem, they greeted me as one of their own. I'd "made my bones" as Sonny Corleone would say. I can now say that of this group of strangers I'd met, many of them are fast becoming friends. Next week I am actually becoming a member of the AUG. I AM A POET :-)

In addition to presenting the poem to the audience, my fellow Intelligent Design Arts Collective (IDAC) member, Mr. Wao (Wow!), also recorded it. Mr. Wao does an awesome job putting together video for posting on You Tube. I was surprised at how easy it was to post: create an account and upload to You Tube. Simple, right? I felt trepidation. This was different than reading in front of 20 poets--this was the world. My finger shook slightly as I clicked "upload".

I am so happy to have done the reading and the video. I feel liberated after crossing this new challenge and now standing safe on the other side of it. I plan to do a lot more writing, reciting and posting. If you have something you love to do and it is positive for the world, share it! Don't hide that light under a barrel. Let it shine, baby, let it shine.


Here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9x1vlVFCI