“Fuck you!” said Kelli Bannister ’13, in the most congenial voice possible, followed with a bout of laughter.
Witness the spoken word. It has the power to sway thoughts, evoke powerful emotions and, on some occasions, make people mildly confused. I was caught off guard by this unusual juxtaposition and abruptly stopped absentmindedly stabbing at the snow peas on my plate. But verbal harassment wasn’t the goal of Bannister, the co-president of Reflexion, the new spoken word group here at Conn. When I stopped by, she was giving a vivid demonstration of one of the many exercises done in their innovative workshops, this particular one focusing on identifying emotion absent in its conventional textual connotation.
The workshops are just one illustration of what the group intends to do for the campus community. Since the beginning of this semester, Reflexion has been picking up where FLIP (FreeLance Integrated Poetry), a former slam poetry group at Conn, left off. But unlike FLIP, which was just a weekly meeting time for people to come spit their poetry, Reflexion is throwing its doors open to complete beginners and the dedicated poets alike.
“We’re reaching out to people who have no experience, and those for whom poetry is their world,” says Madeline Noi ’12, the group’s senior advisor. Their aim is to allow people to grow and improve their ability to express themselves through poetry. They want to attract people who might be too intimidated to try spoken word.
Reflexion seeks to make members comfortable with both being on stage and in their work itself. Their workshops, which are held on Saturdays in Cro from twelve to two, are centered around improvement in the areas of voice, performance and content. But that isn’t to imply that meetings are in any way nailed down to a formal structure.
“It’s not just ‘serious quiet time’, it’s almost like an N2O skit if you were to walk in on us – we do a lot of improv exercises,” says Noi. As the group comes together, the conventional subsides and spontaneity takes its place.
In the exercise “Yes and…” everyone breaks off into pairs; one person in the pair has to say a line that starts off a story. Going along with that line, the next person must quickly continue the story with a line of their own, based on how they interpreted the words of their partner. But with two different minds trying to create one story, the interpretations of one another’s words are often misaligned. Chaos ensues. Productive chaos, that is.
“You get compounded, personalized perceptions of what someone else is thinking,” says Noi. When performing spoken word the subjectivity of the poem’s meaning is more pronounced; members of the audience may or may not respond the way one expects. Such exercises train the poet to assume the varied responses of the audience while remaining independent in what he or she wants their poem to mean.
Although the executive board of Reflexion is a dedicated one, they are by no means the dominating force in running the club. “I find it important to emphasize that even though I lead exercises, others have the opportunity to lead as well,” says Noi. “I do it with them because I’m learning myself.” A theater major, for example, would be welcome to lead them in a performance workshop if he or she wished. The absence of a single, absolute leadership in the group encourages every member to contribute in whatever way they can and feel valued. This spirit of mutual improvement is a fundamental principal guiding Reflexion. “We’re really trying to build a community here,” says Andy Schwartz ’13, the group’s other co-president.
The openness of the group is reflected by the diversity in experience among members. Some have performed spoken word; others have only witnessed it in action. Still more people have only written verse and want to branch out and learn how to express their work vocally. But everyone gets something from the workshops; one could even say that having such a dynamic group of individuals is key to their success.
“No one member in the group is alike,” says Bannister. “In that respect, I think we’re opening each other’s eyes.”
“There were perspectives in the last workshop that I would have never thought of,” adds Noi. “I could have sat for hours and never would have thought of it that way.”
Reflexion has thus far created a welcoming environment at their meetings in which people can safely express themselves, but it remains their goal to spread this spirit as much as they can. They already have a bonfire performance planned for Friday October 29 in Cro Pit for poets and non-poets alike, or people who just want s’mores. The event will aim to bring attention to breast cancer and domestic violence awareness.
Noi also plans to use her connections with OVCS to reach out to schools in New London to enhance children’s means of expression. “We want to encourage the youth to use their voices instead of their fists,” says Bannister, emphatically.
In looking at the backgrounds of the group’s e-board, the reasons for their dedication to poetry become clear. Noi began writing poetry when she was in seventh grade and her teacher asked the class to write poetry in their journals. She realized that she liked it and continued writing long after the assignment was finished. Bannister found inspiration in women such as Queen Latifah, who empower other women through vocal representation. “As a kid, music was my refuge,” she says. When she realized that she wanted to say more than what was being said in the hip-hop community, poetry became her outlet. Schwartz began seriously writing poetry as a high school sophomore. His cousin, Adam Gotley, a published poet, inspired him to begin writing.
For all of them, poetry has not merely been about performing, but has also been an empowering component of their lives. As a group, Reflexion is aiming to show the campus community the same uplifting power of spoken word. “Being creative doesn’t stop at doing a good performance, it’s how you carry yourself,” says Schwartz, “Being creative is always a positive thing.”
