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Poetry in motion
By LOGAN NEILL © St. Petersburg Times, published April 26, 2001
Cool, man. Of course, these aren't the comings and goings one would normally find at the Parrott Middle School media center on a Wednesday morning. But once a year, when Elizabeth Marion's advanced reading class stages its Bumpin' Beatniks Cafe, you'd best appreciate good poetry or you'll be considered square. About 60 eighth-grade students spent the day last week revisiting the coffeehouse atmosphere of the 1950s, when sophisticated aficionados gathered to sip their favorite java and listen to spoken performances by the likes of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Throughout the day, the students performed works by contemporary and legendary poets both familiar and obscure, all in an effort to better grasp a literary art form that many feel is slowly dying in the face of modern society. "It's mostly a fun thing, but I'm glad these kids can appreciate that something like this helps broaden their world," said Marion, who first organized the poetry reading three years ago. Concerned that many of her reading students tended to view poetry as boring and hard to understand, she began looking for a way to heighten their interest. As a University of South Florida student in the early 1980s, Marion, an admitted poetry buff, used to attend weekend "poetry slams" at small coffeehouses in Ybor City. She enjoyed the tight-knit community of performers and audiences, and felt her students might appreciate a similar experience. Along with advanced reading students from Nick Keller's class, Marion's pupils set up the media center to replicate the coffeehouse experience for the select audience of middle schoolers, parents and School Board officials invited to attend. The cabaret setting included linen-covered tables surrounded by avant-garde paintings. The performers took turns waiting tables, serving guests coffee, juice and hot chocolate, along with cookies and pastries. Many of the students took delight in dressing for the part. Several of the boys sported a retro-look with dark sunglasses, black shirts and berets, while many of the girls dressed in '50s-style skirts and sweaters. As was customary in coffeehouses in the 1950s, each performer was introduced by a simple bongo roll and applauded beatnik-style afterward by a flurry of snapping fingers. While each student performer was given the freedom to choose a favorite poem, many borrowed from the volumes of works by noted children's poet and songwriter Shel Silverstein. His short, spicy verses seemed to invite many of the performers to deliver them via costumed presentations. Eighth-graders Andrea LaDuron, Nicole Ralph, Karry Schuele, Shauna Allen and Tiffany Dorr appeared in pajamas and nightgowns to recite a trio of Silverstein's lyrical commentaries on adolescent behavior. Sara Holbrook's Racing With Risk, which received an impassioned reading by the ensemble of Kyle Sparkman, J.P. Garda, Josh Mccoy and Paul Hinkle, proved that the students attempted to delve as deeply as possible into the darker side of life. Said Josh of the work, "It took me a while to really understand it. I just started looking at it like a song. It was kind of a challenge to get up and do the way it's supposed to be recited." Learning to interpret poems and search for their true meaning was one of Marion's prime goals for her students. "Most kids this age have never had the opportunity to get up and recite something," she said. "I encouraged them to use their imagination and learn how to bring these words to life." Tiffany Hall and Brittany Basile chose two short works from J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter novel, which they recited dressed in witches costumes. Part of the reason they chose them was that they were familiar to classmates. "We thought about doing something else, but these were really cute poems," said Tiffany. "Besides, just about everyone here knows them already."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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