Performance Poetry

I find poetry performances to be quite interesting. Every artist and performer has his or her own style. There could be a beat or just hand gestures to help the performer convey his words to the audience. Of all the performers, I greatly enjoyed watching Beau Sia and Saul Williams perform their pieces. It seems that a great performer is passionate about his or her work, thoughts, and method of getting the word to the audience. All the performances given by Professor McSweeney were thought provoking. But what I thought was a characteristic of a good performer was his or her passion that was portrayed in the performance. My personal preference of a good performer was one that was able to have the words be audible by myself and the audience. Some performers spoke too quickly, or mumbled at times, but it’s important for both the performer and audience to have the thought or message understood.

Beau Sia was able to do this very effectively. He spoke clearly and was able to incorporate humor and his thoughts of society and media and perform his poetry at a very upbeat and heart pounding pace. I guess there is a slight bias in my propensity towards liking Beau Sia because he talks about Asian stereotypes in his personal life, film, and society. I just love the way he talks about Asian stereotypes and is able to add humor to it ( I joke about Asian stereotypes all the time, and many are true to be honest…haha). His large voice (figuratively speaking of course) wa heard by everyone in the room. Projecting his voice with such passion, crescendo and emotion made him larger than he actually is. I think that Beau Sia has been successful due to media and television. Although he is quite accomplished in many competitions of slam poetry, I doubt that he would have been able to gain national fame without being able to perform on television and have different industries be exposed to his skill of performing.

Compared to other performers like Harryette Mullen and Tao Lin, each has their own style. Harryette uses a slower beat, but still keeps rhythm and occasionally breaks into song. Whereas Tao will only use a monotone voice...but the core material still captivates the audience. Beau Sia... on the other spectrum when compared to Tao, uses a large voice and speaks his mind...without fear or embarrassment.