POETREE

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.

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"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.