2008 Woodie Awards
Rebirth comes in words
Charlotte Jobrack
Issue date: 3/2/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment
- Page 1 of 2 next >
WORD was all about crafting and lifting the voice from the page to the ear. The packed Page Commons buzzed as the DJ-backed Shapel Mallard's introduction for PCB, student poets JC Chang '10 and Lauren Harding '08, and visiting spoken word poets Amir Sulaiman and Shihan. Harding received a rousing round of applause, leading off the night with a poem claiming, "admiration is a fad," and "black is the new Starbucks."
She was followed by Shihan, a full time poet who has appeared on Def Poetry Slam, lists Prince among his influences, and greeted the clapping Colby crowd by telling us to 'give it up' for the DJ because, he said, "they have to stand all the time! It's hard!" Wearing a black t-shirt with the slogan "music is the new cotton," symbolizing, he says, the music industry as a slave plantation. The artists have "become slaves to the vices they create," but he believes that "poetry at its core is truth and honesty," and spoken word makes it live. This consciousness and concern for the unraveling of our society into a deaf and dumb cultural climate ran through each one of the poet's works. Shihan split the mood with humor, jumping around, and telling the captivated audience stories about his fear of flying to Idaho, "the scariest shit in the world," and teaching his daughter to play fight and to think of better insults than he can. Switching from a poem that tells the listener to "try not to hide behind your eyelids because your eyes still hear clarity," and that "if I was to die writing in total darkness you'd be happy to know the last thing I saw was truth," to a poem about Osimo, Honda's "white helper robot," saying "what's wrong with you! Don't you know these robots are trying to kill you?" These robots are "in line to form their own axis of evil," and they are coming to get us, Shihan says right before changing the mood back to "Words." He speaks of compassion, and a call to awareness with a bit of humor, and lots of family love thrown in. "Poets write poetry because they can't afford a therapist," and "sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will always teach you."
She was followed by Shihan, a full time poet who has appeared on Def Poetry Slam, lists Prince among his influences, and greeted the clapping Colby crowd by telling us to 'give it up' for the DJ because, he said, "they have to stand all the time! It's hard!" Wearing a black t-shirt with the slogan "music is the new cotton," symbolizing, he says, the music industry as a slave plantation. The artists have "become slaves to the vices they create," but he believes that "poetry at its core is truth and honesty," and spoken word makes it live. This consciousness and concern for the unraveling of our society into a deaf and dumb cultural climate ran through each one of the poet's works. Shihan split the mood with humor, jumping around, and telling the captivated audience stories about his fear of flying to Idaho, "the scariest shit in the world," and teaching his daughter to play fight and to think of better insults than he can. Switching from a poem that tells the listener to "try not to hide behind your eyelids because your eyes still hear clarity," and that "if I was to die writing in total darkness you'd be happy to know the last thing I saw was truth," to a poem about Osimo, Honda's "white helper robot," saying "what's wrong with you! Don't you know these robots are trying to kill you?" These robots are "in line to form their own axis of evil," and they are coming to get us, Shihan says right before changing the mood back to "Words." He speaks of compassion, and a call to awareness with a bit of humor, and lots of family love thrown in. "Poets write poetry because they can't afford a therapist," and "sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will always teach you."
Be the first to comment on this story