On Monday April 5th I participated in my first Open Mic Night at University of Michigan-Dearborn. It was sponsored by the Writing Center and participating was a portion of our grade. To say I did this against my will would not be too strong a statement to make.
Funny thing is, I actually ended up liking it.
First of all, I like poetry. So I knew I would like that part. I also like performance art, so I knew that I would enjoy watching my classmates and the other speakers as well.
What I didn't expect was that I was gonna like the feeling of, um, exhilaration I got while presenting my own piece.
The poem I chose to do was a tough one for me. I had just been diagnosed with breast cancer when I wrote it and it was raw and emotional and scared. But, because I was scared to speak anyway, I figured it was the perfect time to do the poem. And, I'm happy to say I got thru it without crying, without my voice wavering too much, and with out losing my cool. I considered the whole experience a success.
Would I participate in an Open Mic Night again. I would have say, surprisingly, Yes.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The Video Feedback
For our assignment we had to watch several videos on writing and write our feedback on them.
I watched Ira Glass' video of his appearance in This American Life on how he writes a story. I really liked this piece a lot because I could totally relate to it. I agree that you can have all of the fundamentals of being a good writer, can know the proper language and grammar and sentence structure, etc---but if you don't have a good 'story' all of that is worthless. If you have a good story, one that grabs you and takes hold of you, it is the basis of wonderful things. Granted, any story will be better in the hands of a gifted writer, but the raw materials go a long way regardless.
I also watched Nellie McKay sing her song "Mother Of Pearl". I absolutely adored it. Not only were the lyrics of the song funny they were also very intelligent. Her sweet voice and the ukelele (?) she was playing made it seem like just a light throw-off of a song, but it was very deep and insightful. I liked how she took a serious topic, added her own twists, sense of humor, and style of delivery, and made it her own. She got across a message and her opinion in a fantastic manner.
I watched Ira Glass' video of his appearance in This American Life on how he writes a story. I really liked this piece a lot because I could totally relate to it. I agree that you can have all of the fundamentals of being a good writer, can know the proper language and grammar and sentence structure, etc---but if you don't have a good 'story' all of that is worthless. If you have a good story, one that grabs you and takes hold of you, it is the basis of wonderful things. Granted, any story will be better in the hands of a gifted writer, but the raw materials go a long way regardless.
I also watched Nellie McKay sing her song "Mother Of Pearl". I absolutely adored it. Not only were the lyrics of the song funny they were also very intelligent. Her sweet voice and the ukelele (?) she was playing made it seem like just a light throw-off of a song, but it was very deep and insightful. I liked how she took a serious topic, added her own twists, sense of humor, and style of delivery, and made it her own. She got across a message and her opinion in a fantastic manner.
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