Blog #23

Introduction

Performance poetry utilizing aspects of drama is a new idea in today’s world.  In fact, it is so new that finding previous studies on this topic was quite a task.  The previous studies I did find discussed performance poetry as the art of reading a poem aloud.  I reviewed one article in particular by Susan Chambers titled, “Reading Poetry Wrong: Prosody and Performance,” in which she supports this notion by focusing on how hearing a poem "performed" or read aloud is necessary to fully comprehending the beauty of it.  Today, however, performance poetry is taking it a few steps farther.  Through this study I plan to expand upon the previous research to show how one poet who practices performance poetry pushes the envelope and helps performance poetry evolve by making her performance pieces more of a theatrical production than a poetry reading.  
Literature Review

           

  It was difficult to find previous research based on the type of performance poetry that I am researching because it is such a new idea and isn’t practiced by an abundance of people.  The research that I did find referred to performing poetry as reading it aloud.  The article I looked at was written by Susan Chambers in 2008 and is titled, “Reading Poetry Wrong: Prosody and Performance.”  While my paper will show that my participant believes performance poetry adds elements of drama, Chambers’ essay believes that performance poetry is to read a poem aloud.    

Methods

            To gather the data for my research, I first completed an interview with a participant who I will refer to as S.  S is currently an English professor at Kean University.  She was chosen for this interview because she has been writing poetry for 53 years.  She transitioned into performance poetry in 2007 and has composed two shows of performance poetry which she has performed for many different audiences.  She is currently working to compose more pieces for a new show of performance poetry.

            The interview took place on a Friday afternoon in S’s office at Kean University.  I could tell that she took pride in her office because it was decorated with some of her favorite things, including things from some of her performances.  S felt very comfortable in her office and was able to talk to me freely about performance poetry.  The questions I asked S were based on her experience with poetry.  I wanted to gain insight on performance poetry from someone who is very familiar with it.  The interview lasted for twenty-two minutes and forty-two seconds and was recorded on my iPhone so I could go back and listen to it later.

            The next step in the process of gathering data was to transcribe the interview I conducted.  I then needed to pick out excerpts of the interview that were significant to my topic.  I used discourse analysis to analyze these excerpts to show how they related to my focus. 

Conclusion

            All in all, performance poetry has evolved in recent years.  So recent, in fact that even the literature I reviewed from 2008 still referred to reading poems aloud as performing poetry.  Now performance poetry goes much farther than simply reading poems aloud.  Today those performing poetry add aspects of theater and drama, recite their poems from heart, use body motions and/or call and response techniques to engage audiences, and even use props on stage to enhance their performances.  My study examined these changes and aimed to show how performance poetry has grown. 
         My study did however have some limitations.  It was only based on the point of view of one poet who practices performance poetry since I was not awarded enough time to interview more people.  If I had time I would have liked to interview more poets and audience members of performance poetry to gain more insight on this topic, to see some other ways performance poetry may have grown, and to see how performance poetry impacts its audience.  Future research will need to be done on different forms of performance poetry and on the impact of performance poetry on the audience.  More research can also be done to show how performance poetry has evolved since my research is based only one the way one performance poet has evolved her poetry.