Sarah Davis, FCRH ’16, recites a Nuyorican-style poem for her performance. (Tessa Bloechl/The Ram
By Allegra Howard
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Fordham’s spoken word group Verbal Essences performed two successful shows last weekend at the Blackbox Theater. The spoken word group held its first open mic of the year last Friday. In order to perform, participants had to enter their names into a lottery system similar to the one at renowned spoken word establishment The Nuyorican Poets Café. A member of Verbal Essences randomly selected 10 people from the hat to perform for a maximum of three minutes. Founder and master of ceremonies Sarah Davis, FCRH ’16, chose the Nuyorican model to save time, but only nine brave souls entered the lottery. Thus, all lottery participants had a chance to perform that night.
Verbal Essences members Devin Chowske, FCRH ’14, Elle Crane, FCRH ’16, and Adam Seighman, FCRH ’17, then judged each performance and assigned it a number from one to ten. The participant who received the highest number at the end of the night won the right to perform with Verbal Essences the following night at their members-only performance.
Verbal Essences member Vanessa Agovida, FCRH ’16, began the night strongly with a cover of Rachel Rostad’s fiery critique, “A Letter to JK Rowling from Cho Chang.” Christiana Shovlin, FCRH ’16, followed with a piece filled with beautiful, poetic sounds and metaphors but otherwise nonsensical. Maddie Murphy, FCRH ’17, recited a strong feminist piece about forming her own self-identity. Bobby Dallas, GSB ’14, also read a personal poem called “Fine,” and A.J. Golio, FCRH ’16, read aloud a fun piece about being intoxicated. Amy Palen, FCRH ’16, ended the night with a last minute, original poem containing tree imagery that beautifully described the longing to be with someone far away.
Many of the performances were filled with angst or had a dark undercurrent, but Chris Henessee, a visitor from Cornell, easily won 30 points that night for a beautiful, vulnerable and inspiring performance of fluid body movements and heart-wrenching intonation. Henessee wanted to encourage listeners to love their bodies for what they are and to believe they are already perfect.
- Verbal Essences takes a well-deserved bow after a successful first show of the semester. (Tessa Bloechl/The Ram)
Verbal Essences’ Saturday night performances were not only more varied but embodying the inspirational tone that Henessee set.
“It had a whole range,” said Amanda Gaare, a visitor from New Jersey, and one of the few late attendees who had to stand outside the doorway of the packed venue to catch the show.
“Like, going into that, you kind of think it’s all going to be angsty poetry, all low and depressing,” Gaare said. “But they had a good mix between humor and some of the more darker, serious, intense stuff.”
For example, Alexandra Leen, FCRH ’16, quietly recited a sweet and touching poem recounting her blissful, innocent childhood in Holland, while Cecelia Hanifin, FCRH ’14, discussed tea to reflect on the great comfort of family and friends. Agovida similarly recounted her book-loving childhood in a nostalgic but relatable poem, while Crane discussed true originality and value and Shaun Chaudry, FCRH ’14, read aloud a reassuring poem of living in the face of one’s fears and doubts.
On the other hand, Mike Dahlgren, FCRH ’14, showed off his amazing wit and charm in a hilarious drunken ode to White Castle, and Mikey Brown, FCRH ’16, gave a rich and exuberant performance bursting with eagerness and imagination that left you smiling. Devin Chowske’s, FCRH ’14, performance made the audience feel like Beethoven was a close, familiar friend, as if they were not separated by centuries of differences. Adam Seighman, FCRH ’17, took a different route, discussing how he wanted to date someone who would prefer to stay in for the night rather than go out on the town. His poem was fun and good-natured, and his sensual innuendos and naughty play-on-words made it feel like he was flirting with the crowd.
Verbal Essences members were also extremely down-to-earth and supportive of each other, and audience members on both nights loudly cheered on poets with snaps and applause whenever they stumbled, cultivating a fun, friendly and supportive atmosphere in which everyone could just be goofy.
Davis hopes that the recently founded Verbal Essences will expand as it continues its second semester. She says Verbal Essences hopes to continue doing open mics, as well as eventually enter intercollegiate events and expand their membership.
“We know that there are people out there that are interested, but maybe didn’t hear about auditions last semester because it was so new, and we want to get more and more people interested that want to do it,” Davis said. “We’re losing four seniors, so there’ll be four spots open next year when we come back.”
Davis said before Friday’s show that Verbal Essences is thankful all the same for the success they had when they were just starting out.
“We were so surprised by the turn-out and just so grateful, and we really hope that it’s the same this semester and just continues increasing,” Davis said.
For more information and updates about Verbal Essences, check out the FET Facebook page.
