TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2018 7-9:50PM

Performance Poetry

Laura Scudder Conference Room, Roosevelt Hall 121

Poetry on the page versus poetry on the stage—they’re different. Some lines reverberate off the page, but fall flat in front of a crowd. Some stanzas sing to a live audience, but look lifeless lying in a book. What are the techniques that differentiate a page from a stage poem?

And what exactly is slam? When does a poem evolve from performance to slam? Are there rules? (Yes.) What are they? (Come find out!)

This workshop in performance and slam poetry will explore the differences between traditional written verse and—the actually more ancient—oral forms that have gained popularity in recent years. We will discuss examples of successful slam and performance poetry, and we will engage in exercises that can help students develop their own performance poetry skills over time.

Students are encouraged (but not required) to bring their own works to the class for the purpose of workshop and development: 1-5 poems.

Joshua Jennings Wood, Director, Creative Writing Conservatory

Orange County School of the Arts

Joshua Jennings Wood is Director of Creative Writing Conservatory at the Orange County School of the Arts, where he has taught classes in poetry, prose, and literature since 2002. Each year he organizes the largest poetry slam in the county: OC RYSE. This performance poetry competition draws more than 100 young poets together for a weekend of slam. As the OCSA team coach, he prepares them for this and other performances throughout the year. He has been a finalist for Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers, The North American Review’s James Hurst Prize for Poetry, and the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry. His writing appears in such journals as The Berkeley Poetry Review, Diagram, OccuPoetry, and VOLT. He received his MFA/MA from Chapman University, where he also taught from 2005-2009.