On Friday night, Dartmouth students and fans filled One Wheelock to maximum capacity to see "Spoken Words," a free event featuring well-known poets Anis Mojgani, Sarah Kay, Phil Kaye and Dartmouth's own Aimee Le '12.
Beginning with performances by the Soul Scribes and concluding with a "Talk Back" question and answer session, "Spoken Words" was an intimate show, illuminating both the power and worth of words and poetry. Dartmouth students, including talented Soul Scribes members Georgia Travers '13 and Anna-Kay Thomas '12, confidently graced the stage before the acclaimed poets.
One Wheelock was particularly packed during the headline poets' performances. They were originally supposed to perform 20-minute individual sets beginning with Mojgani, but "Spoken Words" culminated with a surprise 40-minute combination performance with Kay and Kaye, who performed both separately and together.
Mojgani, who has won several titles for his poetry over the years and was featured on HBO's "Def Poetry Jam," made the entire audience laugh before he began his set when he noted a table nicely positioned in front of the stage to keep the adoring fan-filled audience from getting too close. Although he is a natural comedian, Mojgani's performance was also serious and passionate, and he successfully delivered his moving piece "Come Closer."
During "Come Closer," the room appropriately became silent as Mojgani playfully described a lover who is "quite the beauty." The poem was a beautiful declaration of love and appreciation. "There are birds that beat their wings beneath your breast plates," he said as he encouraged the audience to sympathize with the lover in his poem. His descriptive comparisons were successful as he described the lover's teeth that formed an amazing smile and resembled upside-down teacups.
"I feel that poetry is a tool that humans use to illuminate common truths between us," Mojgani said during the "Talk Back" question and answer session.
Le followed Mojgani, reading pieces directly from her book "Feral Citizens," which will be sold at Left Bank Books beginning May 1. During the "Talk Back" portion, Le encouraged the audience to find and follow contemporary authors who have recently published their works, because "realizing that your favorite writers are still alive" is gratifying.
Le also read an emotional poem called "The Shape Issue" and performed a poem about her experiences living in the Occupy Dartmouth tent outside of Collis Center. She concluded her set with a comical and witty battle rap, which was accompanied by a beat laid down by Amrita Sankar '12.
Kay and Kaye, both acclaimed and extremely gifted poets, followed Le, coming on stage together to perform a complex piece that began with a remixed version of "American Pie" and moved onto a natural rhythm the two alternated between speaking independently and in unison. Their performance was a successful mixture of song lyrics and spoken words.
The opportunity to see such well-known poets as Kay and Kaye perform together added a refreshing vibe to the performance. Later in the show, Kay, who is pursuing a master's degree in education and has presented at TED conferences, performed her famous piece "If I Should Ever Have a Daughter," along with an endearing love poem that she wrote called "Toothbrush to the Bicycle Tire."
In the question and answer session, Kay discussed how great an opportunity "Spoken Word" is for touring artists.
"Instead of being in one classroom everyday, we go all around the world in different classrooms," Kay said.
A highlight of the night was Kaye's performance of a piece about his stuttering problem and his parent's divorce, beginning with a line that his mother told him: "If you repeat something over and over again, it loses its meaning." The fact that he overcame his stutter and became a poet demonstrates how much words and their power mean to Kaye, he said.
Kay and Kaye also discussed their own relationship, first through storytelling and then through a poem. They share the same last name, met at college during a talent show where they both performed spoken word pieces, are both from Japanese and Jewish heritages and each have a 19-year-old sibling.
Overall, "Spoken Words" drew attention to the importance of writing and poetry that is often masked by practical, non-humanities topics at Dartmouth.
"Despite being cramped in One Wheelock, I still felt the emotions," Sankar said. "There is something to it being live."
That people filled One Wheelock on a Friday night to listen to poetry demonstrates that words and performance art of all forms still matter.
