A poet hits with an ear for music
Thomas Sayers Ellis performs for New Writing Series
Kyle Kernan
Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: Style
In his first appearance at the New Writing Series, Wednesday, March 26, at Barrows Hall, Thomas Sayers Ellis displayed a range of talent and expression.
Ellis's performance blended together a rhythmically unique emphasis of words, musicality and comedic insight throughout his poetry to captivate an audience of more than 100 for nearly an hour.
Ellis's poems in his collection "The Maverick Room," are meant to be identity repair poems for him, Ellis said. He integrates slang and musicality to move his words in a vernacular tone. Ellis began with the poem "Audience" from his new manuscript "Colored Only," where he reflected on his own race and identity but also called on the audience to reflect on theirs as well.
Before his next poem, Ellis explained how he spent a summer at Yaddo, an artist's community located in Saratoga Springs, New York. He was given Sylvia Plath's workroom and Elizabeth Bishop's bedroom on the estate. Being influenced -and perhaps haunted-by the poetic geniuses, he wrote the poem "All Their Stanzas Look Alike."
Ellis' use of rhythm emphasized the feeling of this poem to a strong degree, as he repeated the line "all their stanza's look alike," and slightly moderated his intonation and tone to give the poem momentum and its musical feel. The poem called to mind his cultural observations of stereotypes.
"All their fences/ All their prisons/ All their exercises/ All their agendas/ All their stanzas look alike// All their metaphors/ All their bookstores/ All their plantations/ All their assassinations/ All their stanzas look alike."
Ellis's poem "Balloon Dog" reflected a certain vibe in his words. They moved with a similar rhyme as his previous poem. The poem calls to mind an idea to escape the confines of an artist's ego and to find the genuine feeling and truth behind the words and meaning.
Before reading his poem "Pack of Cigarettes," Ellis explained his inspiration for the poem was derived from his understanding of street gangs becoming bands who used music - namely doo-wop - as a form of expression. The poem reflects how segregation influenced gangs to form and how music was an escape from the oppression of segregation.
Ellis's performance blended together a rhythmically unique emphasis of words, musicality and comedic insight throughout his poetry to captivate an audience of more than 100 for nearly an hour.
Ellis's poems in his collection "The Maverick Room," are meant to be identity repair poems for him, Ellis said. He integrates slang and musicality to move his words in a vernacular tone. Ellis began with the poem "Audience" from his new manuscript "Colored Only," where he reflected on his own race and identity but also called on the audience to reflect on theirs as well.
Before his next poem, Ellis explained how he spent a summer at Yaddo, an artist's community located in Saratoga Springs, New York. He was given Sylvia Plath's workroom and Elizabeth Bishop's bedroom on the estate. Being influenced -and perhaps haunted-by the poetic geniuses, he wrote the poem "All Their Stanzas Look Alike."
Ellis' use of rhythm emphasized the feeling of this poem to a strong degree, as he repeated the line "all their stanza's look alike," and slightly moderated his intonation and tone to give the poem momentum and its musical feel. The poem called to mind his cultural observations of stereotypes.
"All their fences/ All their prisons/ All their exercises/ All their agendas/ All their stanzas look alike// All their metaphors/ All their bookstores/ All their plantations/ All their assassinations/ All their stanzas look alike."
Ellis's poem "Balloon Dog" reflected a certain vibe in his words. They moved with a similar rhyme as his previous poem. The poem calls to mind an idea to escape the confines of an artist's ego and to find the genuine feeling and truth behind the words and meaning.
Before reading his poem "Pack of Cigarettes," Ellis explained his inspiration for the poem was derived from his understanding of street gangs becoming bands who used music - namely doo-wop - as a form of expression. The poem reflects how segregation influenced gangs to form and how music was an escape from the oppression of segregation.
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