Last Thursday, Middlebury students, faculty, staff and community members came together in the sold-out McCullough Social Space for a one-of-a-kind event: a spoken word poetry showcase featuring readings by seven students, three respected poets touring under the name “Night Kite Revival” and the widely known and beloved Taylor Mali. The stunning performances were made possible though the work of a number of groups, likely because several people realized at the same time that Middlebury is woefully lacking in appearances by outside spoken-word poets. Verbal Onslaught has maintained a steady attendance during my years at Middlebury, but this event proved just how appealing the form can be to open-minded college students of countless different backgrounds, especially when poets of this caliber are performing.
Originally, Carey Favaloro ’13.5 had been trying to arrange, through the Middlebury Mountain Club, for Taylor Mali to do a solo performance at Middlebury. Unbeknownst to her, Chris De La Cruz ’13 had also spent part of the summer and the fall trying to bring Buddy Wakefield, Anis Mojgani and Derrick C. Brown to the College for a fall performance. These three poets have a habit of touring together — this year under the title “Night Kite Revival” but with a different moniker every year (e.g. Elephant Engine Revival, Junkyard Ghost Revival, etc.). Over the summer, Verbal Onslaught host Dane Verret ’12 (who was abroad during the fall), had contacted De La Cruz about bringing the poets after hearing that De La Cruz was a fan of Mojgani, who hails from Verret’s native New Orleans. Both had secured funding and were nearly ready to set dates for the performances still not realizing that a similar event was being planned.
“It didn’t all come together until maybe two weeks before winter break,” said De La Cruz. “I had reserved a date [in the Social Space], because we were supposed to do it in the fall and we couldn’t, so I decided we were going to do it during J-Term. So I reserved a date, and then Carey e-mailed me and said, ‘Hey, Chris, I heard you have the Social Space reserved for these two days, and I was wondering if I could take one of them because we’re trying to bring Taylor Mali.’ At first I was worried that there was a competing spoken word event, but then I realized that we could bring them all together because Night Kite Revival usually tours with a special guest anyway, and they even knew each other.”
Evidently, they had even talked about Mali being the guest on their tour before. So it seemed like a match made in heaven — combining the two events was simply the natural thing to do. De La Cruz had co-hosted Verbal Onslaught this semester, along with Cat Campbell ’11 and Fif Aganga ’13, after hosting the First-Year performance during orientation. Since Campbell and Aganga were both set to perform, De La Cruz co-hosted with Ross Co-Chair Barbara Ofosu-Somuah ’13, who had helped raise money for the event. To open the show, there were poems read by Anna Gallagher ’12, Timothy Garcia ’14, Bella Tudisco ’13.5, Campbell, Aganga, J.P. Allen ’11 and Verret. Just from this opening segment, it was clear that spoken word poetry is a medium that can arrive at meaning via many different paths, and by many different people.
After this, the four other poets took the stage for a combined opener before performing individually. Buddy Wakefield was first, with his self-deprecating, playful yet intense style, and often lent him some musical accompaniment by Elias Alexander ’12 on bagpipes, penny whistle and harmonica. Anis Mojgani then performed some of his abstract, soulful work, followed by Derrick Brown, who was quite theatrical in comparison. He used pre-composed soundscapes played under his reading, and he even made a journey out into the crowd during the chorus of his final song-poem.
All three of these poets had their own way of captivating an audience; Wakefield with his brazen passion, Mojgani with his quiet preacher-like nature and Brown with the almost rock-star-like quality that he seems to possess. Mali’s poetry is more straightforward than any of theirs, but he may have had the most strong, entrancing presence of all. It’s not too hard to imagine him as the eighth grade teacher that many of his poems reflected on. By the time his segment, and a brief encore (with half-joking Q&A) had concluded, the performance had gone on for nearly three hours, but few seemed to mind.
“The event went better than I could ever have expected,” said De La Cruz. “I could see people laughing or holding their breath during the poems.” He added, “When I think about any type of art, it’s all about those moments when you are simply not thinking about anything else — you’re totally wrapped in the moment. Spoken word just has the ability to do that over and over and over to me.” I think most of those who were in attendance would agree.
The Night Kite Revival, featuring Taylor Mali
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