In Sight of Rowdy's Weblog

"Move Yo' Self"

Looking back on me and Katie's oral presentation of Poe's "Annabel Lee" we got numerous responses back from our fellow classmates on how to expand future performances of orally presenting poetry and/or Literature. (I know, I know...we did Poe...eventhough I just ranted on him in the previous blog).

Of most of the "negative" responses, we got some reactions concerning moving during our presentation, vocal audibility, and vocal variety (i.e. emotion in our words). Some of the students felt that we didn't move ourselves enough during the reading of the poem. However, that was the aim Katie and I were reaching for: a dismal display of human heartache. I will admit though that in some parts, I could have expanded on achieving a better display of emotions through the reading.

Of the positive, most people said the same thing and surprisingly the opposite of what the negative responses said. The majority of the positive responses liked that Katie and I utilized space within our performance. Our goal was to create a human/thought reading. Meaning that...Katie was the voice of the heart sick lover who just lost his precious Annabel Lee...and I was his own tormenting thoughts. Hence, why we tried to create something that would show that without actually saying. Therefore, I stood on a chair...something quite different from the other readings. Typically people expressed that they liked that idea and some "oooed" and "ahhh" before we actually explained what the heck we were doing.

Overall, the oral presentations of a poetry slam was kinda fun: however, I don't see myself doing anytime soon again...atleast not of my free will. I don't see myself as a physically and verbally expressive person. Acting and stagelike things just don't float my boat - - they do but I don't see myself a natural at it. Therefore, I think I'll stick to my position of keeping quiet and sitting in the classroom corner. :-P