Poet alum gives back to Middlebury

When poet Crystal Belle ’04 walks into a classroom, she easily takes command, her effusive energy spilling out onto those who have come to soak up her wisdom.

As she shares her love of poetry and hip-hop to an eager audience, the devotion and enthusiasm she holds for her craft becomes a palpable presence in the room.

On Jan. 14 and 15, Belle brought this unique aura to Middlebury, taking a hiatus from teaching English at Brooklyn Community Arts and Media High School in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn in order to give the College a taste of her many talents.

From conducting workshops on spoken word poetry and hip-hop as a teaching tool, to giving a lecture on urban education, to performing at Verbal Onslaught’s Spoken Word Open Mic night at 51 Main at the Bridge, Belle barely rested during her return to her alma mater.

Belle finished her two-day extravaganza of events with a book-signing of her first collection of poems, titled “Woman on Fire.”

The publication of the book last October was the culmination of a project that has been in the works for dozens of years.

“I feel like this book has been in my heart since I was at Middlebury,” she explained.

“It’s called ‘Woman on Fire’ because it’s the evolution of me. There are poems in here that I wrote my freshman year at Middlebury; there are poems in here I wrote my first year of teaching. So it’s like all these different poems from different points in my life. It’s kind of a celebration of what it means to be a woman and finding my voice.”

That voice began forming as early as nine years old, when she began writing for a fourth grade project.

“It started and it never stopped,” she said of her poetry.

While inspired by spoken word poet Saul Williams and writer Toni Morrison, Belle also credits her students as notable muses.

“Teaching, you will have a lot to write about,” she said.

“You literally see the have-nots. I see struggle every day in my classroom. I see what that looks like. I could never forget about that or become complacent.”

In her teaching, Belle takes an innovative approach to connecting with her students. Giving credence to hip-hop as a poetic form, she will play a song by Ghostface and then read a verse by Wordsworth, trying to show students that both are sincere styles of art. In this way, students receive an education more inviting than the one that Belle received.

During her schooling, Belle found the focus on the canon off-putting, and now that she teaches, she wants to rectify that experience for others. In literature, she focuses on the questions, “Where do you find yourself?” and “Where do you see yourself?” Belle hopes her students will use hip-hop as a way into the canon.

“I felt like every single thing that I read, for four years, I couldn’t find myself in it,” she said.

“I loved it because it was literature and I loved literature, I loved reading, but I never really felt like I could connect to anything I was reading. So when I think of my students, I think of how I can give them literature, but help them find themselves too.”

Belle never thought she would be a teacher. While in college, she had her sights set on a career in journalism, but experiences interning with ABC turned her off from the path.

“The environment was all about news that didn’t matter to me, or news that I didn’t think was relevant,” she said. “And I hated it. I hated the propaganda.”

After college, Belle received support from a Watson Fellowship to travel around the world writing poetry and researching hip-hop as a form that “started seemingly in an urban community in New York” and has now “happened to transcend the world.” The life-changing experience gave her even more material for her writing.

Today, Belle speaks with unquantifiable praise about both her poetry and her students. While her writing comes first — she is in the process of writing a novel — her teaching seems to light up her face just as much as when she speaks of her admiration for Tolstoy.

While she admits that she never knows how the public will receive her work, she still never shies away from giving a performance.

“Because I see the impact it has on people,” she explained.

“How writing can push people to think in that moment — to me, it’s something that has to be done. Of course, before every performance, I have butterflies, but there’s never a hesitation like, ‘Should I do this?’ It’s, ‘No, I have to do this.’”

Belle’s need to share her poetry means the rhymic cadence of her voice will never fall silent. Certainly the dozens of students and locals that packed into 51 Main on Jan. 15 to see Belle deliver her verses will be glad to hear that there is promise of rhymes to come.