"Nigger-Reecan Blues"

Moving poetry from the page to the stage allows the poet to read his or her work the way he or she intended it to be read. In my opinion, I think performing poetry gives the poet the opportunity to enhance his or her work, because he or she can emphasize particular words or sentences. This emphasis allows the audience to interpret that word in many ways, or acknowledge the importance of that particular word or sentence.

When I first read William Perdomo’s poem, “Nigger-Reecan Blues," I kept wondering how this piece would be performed in front of live audience and I figured it would be performed by two people given that their is a dialogue between people. However, when I heard/saw the piece being performed I realized that there was more than one speaker. I realized there were more speakers because of the emphasis he places on each of the stances, he does so by making different voices for each new speaker. I think the multiple speakers in this particular piece are lost on the page, because the reader cannot tell who is speaking and if the voices are different people or just one speaker. When delivered on stage it is a different experience because of the poets power, power in terms of relaying his poem to the audience.

In addition, the comedic value of the piece is also lost on the page, in contrast to it being read and performed.I do not think that a piece being on the page detracts from the overall message, but I do think that performance helps enhance and illustrate the meaning of a poem.In my opinion I think performance is necessary when it comes to poetry because of all of the emotion that pours out of the poets mouth.

--Lizzie