"The Last Judgement" by Hillary Kobernick

[cadenzamuse]

I discovered slam poetry through Hillary Kobernick. I was vaguely aware of performance poetry before. But a friend led me to The St. Sebastian Review (a queer Christian literary magazine that is Relevant To My Interests), and The St. Sebastian Review led me to Hillary Kobernick, who was at the time a Masters of Divinity student in classes with some of my friends at Emory University, and Hillary Kobernick's blog (hillarykobernickpoetry.tumblr.com) introduced me to slam poetry.

I tell you about these serendipitous connections because a: I think that spoken-word poetry is an exercise in fostering serendipitous connections and b: I think that Hillary in particular is a curator of these connections. Her blog is a mix of quotes and essays and videos of slam poets and spontaneous thoughts, and I think her ability to make space for disparate things to mingle and grow together comes through in her poetry as well.

In "The Last Judgement," Hillary connects Michelangelo's image of God creating Adam on the Sistene Chapel Ceiling and his painting "The Last Judgement" with various people's beliefs about sin and love, informed by her political and religious beliefs.

*

"The Last Judgement" by Hillary Kobernick
(transcript not currently available)

Things to Discuss:

• When I hear/watch spoken-word poetry, I'm reminded of the best kind of late night freeflowing conversation, where you get to the end and ask each other, "How did we get here?" So...how did Hillary get here? What connections did she make that were unexpected to you as she made them, and which ones only seemed unexpected after the fact?
• Wikipedia quotes Bob Holman, a poetry activist, calling spoken-word poetry "the democratization of poetry." He also says, "The spoken word revolution is led a lot by women and by poets of color. It gives a depth to the nation's dialogue that you don't hear on the floor of Congress." What oppressed or minority ideas are given a voice in Hillary's poetry? Do you react differently to these ideas in Hillary's poem than you do when you encounter them in other forms?
• In Sarah Kay's TED talk, she discusses how her first impression of spoken word poetry was that it was angry. Do you find that to be the case? Why or why not?
• There is an improv word association game that provides you with two prompts, and you try to associate your way from one prompt to the second. I'm going to open a round of that in the comments, just for fun. Feel free to use this game or any of the comments here as inspiration for a creative work.

Things to Try:

• Check out Hillary's blog. Maybe even use one of Hillary's writing prompts to write a poem.
• Watch another of Hillary's slam poems on YouTube. My second favorite is An Open Letter to Lynn Westmoreland.
• Hillary is part of Atlanta's Art Amok! poetry slam team, which is currently raising money to go to the National Poetry Slam. Consider donating at their indiegogo page.

Comments

Word Association Game

[cadenzamuse]

Prompt A: red
Prompt B: toy train

red makes me think of a clown nose which makes me think of Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am" which makes me think of folk music which makes me think of the Colorado forest fires which makes me think of my uncle and his guitar which makes me think of family reunions which makes me think of my grandfather which makes me think of investigating the physics of wind chimes which makes me think of my husband which makes me think of terrible puns which makes me think of popsicle sticks which make me think of summer which makes me think of playing in the basement which makes me think of our secret hideout behind the boxes in the basement which makes me think of the huge annoying piece of plywood my dad used for his model train tracks which makes me think of toy trains.

You can just list the associations, without "this makes me think of that." I wrote out my entire thought process so you could get a sense of how the game works. :)

Prompt for the Next Person
Prompt A: fingers
Prompt B: Neil deGrasse Tyson

Re: Word Association Game

[jjhunter]

Prompt A: fingers
Prompt B: Neil deGrasse Tyson

fingers
hands
handmade
human made
early human
human evolution
darwinian evolution
origins of life
Origins: Fourteen Billion Years Of Cosmic Evolution
Neil deGrasse Tyson

*g*

Prompt pair for the next person:
Prompt A: Julie D'Aubigny
Prompt B: pomegranate

Re: Word Association Game

[alee_grrl]

Julie D'Aubigny
Name Unknown
Wikipedia
Swordswoman
Swords
cuts
blood droplets
red
pomegranite

prompt a: rabbits
prompt b: milk

Re: Word Association Game

[reginagiraffe]

rabbits
fur
white fur
white
milk


Prompt A: gramophone
Prompt B: black hole

Re: Word Association Game

[cadenzamuse]

gramophone
RCA dog
lopsided dog ear
Good Omens
the Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse
War
futility
depression
black hole

Prompt A: hangnail
Prompt B: Microsoft Surface