Evie Shockley Poetry Reading

Hey there Pat again!

So as an English Education major, there are obviously a lot of English classes on my roster. However the biggest one I have taken this semester, and also one of the most annoying classes, is ENGL 437: Modern American Poetry. The readings are good, but the teacher knows too much for his own good. As a result he goes on lengthy monologues about the history of poets and their writings. In any case, part of my grade is attendance at a particular poetry reading (which the professor happened to have set up himself). Seeing as how it was a mandatory poetry reading, I was not necessarily looking forward to it, but when I made it to 104 Thomas and sat down, I actually found myself pretty excited. As I stated last week I just recently became a fan of poetry, and this event turned out to be a pleasant evening after all. The poet giving the reading was one Evie Shockley, an African American female poet and professor at Wesleyan University. She, as I expected, wrote about being a black woman in today's society, but with an entertaining twist on a number of topics. For example, one of her poems whose title I cannot remember but that it had something to do with a golden shovel, was directed to the popular R&B singer/S&M aficionado Rihanna, criticizing the singer for her taste (or lack thereof) in clothing choice and subject material, as well as how she presented herself. Shockley wittily criticized Rihanna on all of these points, competing her irony with a surprisingly accurate Jamaican accent. Another of her poems, entitled "Never After" was a twist on the classic "princess story" set in a modern day bar and following the exploits of an unlikely princess. Without going into too much detail, there were some serious twists to the poem and the ending was surprising. However what was the most surprising about this poem was Shockley’s response to a question about the poem. When asked if the “princess” had been slipped a drugged drink (don’t ask), Shockley responded, “Yeah, that sounds like a good explanation”. This response really intrigued me into Shockley’s writing as well as her personality. She seemed to treat poetry like an organic process, and her poems as if they were living things that were constantly changing. She allowed to audience to interpret her poems in their own ways and didn’t seem to have a problem with any of the interpretations. I really admire that in a poet and thought it was a great way to look at one’s artwork. However the best part of Shockley’s poems by far were her use of terrible, horrible, really bad puns. Poets by default love using puns, and I guess there’s a bit of poet in me because I thoroughly enjoyed Shockley’s use of corny wordplay. Overall, I really enjoyed the poetry reading and heartily suggest to others to check one out in the near future. Hopefully I will be able to see another reading and tell you guys about it here on the blog, but if not stay tuned I’m sure I’ll find something equally as enthralling to captivate your attention next week!

Till then!