Reflexion: Love Chronicles

“If we all discovered that we had only five minutes left to say all that we wanted to say, every telephone booth would be occupied by people calling other people to stammer that they loved them.” This quote from Christopher Morley elicits the same emotions I felt after watching the extraordinary talent of Reflexion’s Spoken Word as they pulled at the heartstrings of the audience with personal poems of “Love Chronicles.”

The showcase began with a riveting and creative piece entitled “There Is No Such Thing as a Happy Romantic,” in which three students demonstrated the harsh reality of the uncontrollability and unattainability of an emotion we all desire: love. The trio furthered their argument by addressing the issue that love is a nonbinding commitment in which we lose ourselves, for “as much as love said they accepted [your] flaws you couldn’t accept yourself, and now you’re lost at sea as love turns off the lighthouse, one last time, for good.” The showcase proceeded with more pieces of personal experiences with love and of love, including a piece by Reflexion’s vice president, Asia Calcagno ’14. After the performance, Calcagno discussed the subtext of her piece, which she revealed was about “[her] parents and how they met and their story.” For Calcagno, the story of her parents has always touched her — knowing how much they went through — but as a child she never felt that strong love from them because “[she] always remembers [her] parents fighting.” Those memories serve as an “encouragement” for her to want to love in a stronger way than she has seen them love each other.

Reflexion’s President Kelli Bannister ’13 explained what the show is all about: “Valentine’s Day is one of the ultimate days for expression. It’s a day for sharing your perspective, your emotions and your feelings. That’s what we do.” And that is exactly what they did; each artist walked on stage and became vulnerable as they opened themselves up and let their emotions out, all while reciprocating the emotions of the audience. This is Reflexion’s third year showcasing “Love Chronicles” and for both Calcagno and Bannister, this event “pays homage to the ultimate day of expression.” Although the topic of this showcase revolves around “love,” Calcagno informed me that the pieces weren’t about “clichéd love (e.g. roses are red, violets are blue). We talk about love in the family. We talk about break-ups. We talk about friendship love. We talk about love for all types of things.” She also divulged the creative process of Reflexion where “each member of Reflexion writes his or her own individual work for each show.” Collaboration between members is also explored through performance. In “Love Chronicles,” trios, duets and even musical accompaniment were part of the show.

Bannister talked about the subject of the poem that she showcased. “My poem was more about my love for relationships, not necessarily a person, but growth as an individual. You experience a crush on someone here and there, but you cannot experience love in my opinion without having grown enough to understand and love yourself first.” In Bannister’s opinion, “Strong stories and heartfelt emotion make the best material for poetry.” She added that all the members of Reflexion have “roots,” which furthermore makes them unique as a group, a group in which “we get to express our own stories, for there is no one answer to what love is.”

When walking into the 1941 room on Valentine’s Day, the audience was greeted with rose petals on the ground, strings of lights hanging from the walls, large buffet tables of food, a chocolate fountain and a back-drop with the word “love” in red. All the decorations and food were phenomenal, but the two most important aspects of this showcase involved the performer and the audience; everything else was extra. Calcagno wanted to create an atmosphere where the audience would not be afraid to give energy back. “When you’re on a mic, the audience should always give some type of feedback. If you like something, don’t be afraid to say ‘mmm,’ don’t be afraid to clap, don’t be afraid to snap, don’t be afraid to do something to show the poet or the performers on that stage that what [they] said meant something to [you].”

What did the performers want the audience to take away from the show? Bannister said, “An appreciation. We show our appreciation on the stage every day to ensure that we do the art justice, so to have an audience leave that night with saying ‘I appreciate spoken art or that piece really got to me,’ some connection that you made with the audience on stage, that’s our goal.”