Poets from Lansing and beyond take their skills to the mic on the Capitol lawn
By Rina N. Risper
The New Citizens Press
LANSING, MI – The crisp voices of poets reverberated across the Capitol lawn and through downtown on the evening of July 24, 2008. Almost 100 friends and families gathered to hear the muse and inspiration of the Nu Poet Collective and poets signed up for open mic.
The special guest of the evening was Logic. He’s a well-respected poet from Lansing and has traveled the state and country performing with the Ann Arbor slam poets. There was a special tribute to John Wallace, who was wicked with words, he passed away suddenly on May 16, 2008.
The evening started with the song “Love Grows” by 7-year-old Anissa Risper, who stated that she will writing her own poetry when she goes to 2nd grade at Shabazz Academy in the Fall.
Logic’s topics of love and injustice resonated with many of the attendees.
Eastern High School student, 16-year-old George Avendano said, “This was the first time I’ve ever heard Logic do poetry and he was very moving. A quote from his poem that stood out to me the most was, ‘Your happiness is the air that I breathe, and I’d do anything just to take one last breath’. In that line alone I knew exactly how he felt and I could relate because I’ve felt that want before.”
As the young people began trickling in to perform, the anticipation and apprehension of performing in front of a crowd for the first time was apparent. The more seasoned poets encouraged the new poets to share their very personal poems in public. It was evident that their comfort level grew as they graced the mic.
The rhythmic verses began to flow as the teenagers, one by one, demonstrated their verbal skill and enthralled the audience.
Eastern student Karalyn Grimes performed haiku which combines form, content, and language in a meaningful, yet compact form. Lawrence Hart-Howlett performed a gritty piece about a heroin addict.
Javon Drane aka Rain, who is 18-years-old and will be attending Lansing Community College in the Fall, commented, "I liked the event very much. It gave me a chance to read my poetry, and let my voice be heard."
Michigan State University professor, Glenn Stutzky, performed a couple of crowd pleasers, including a limerick about his neighbor’s cat. Limericks are, generally, nonsense poems that are written with a particular pattern; in some ways, the sillier the better. Stutzky didn’t disappoint.
Michigan National Guard, former Detroit police officer and current student, Nicole R. Scott, author of “Can You Handle My Truth?” delivered several inspirational poems. Scott traveled from Detroit and arrived with copies of her book, which includes a series of poems about her personal experiences and her profound relationship with God.
In closing, she said she thoroughly enjoyed participating in the Poetry in the City event and planned on attending the event at the Michigan Women’s Historical Center and Hall of Fame at 213 W. Main Street on Thursday, August 7, 2008. The last event in the series will be on Thursday, September 18, 2008 at Shabazz Academy located at 1028 W. Barnes Avenue from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
With each passing moment it was evident the rewards of performing would be far-reaching.
Avendano said, “Honestly, it was an awesome experience for me personally because I was able to see some of my friends express themselves in a way that is very unique. I never knew they could write like that. It was almost like a completely different side of them came out that night when they got up to the podium. It’s definitely a great way to try to restore some of that lost art and creativity that Lansing once had.”
