Happy Monday in April - Poetry Month!
Thank you "Zaccheus Jackson is a three-time VanSlam team member, two-time Vancouver Individual Slam champ, 2007 GrandSlam Champ and three year Word Play veteran. He has an obsession w/ Heniz Ketchup, never touches dimes, and his gritty, rapid-fire, real-life stories will leave you counting syllables in your sleep." (copied directly from the Vancouver Poetry House website - under "Wordplay", then "Our Poets"
For sharing your Slam Poetry and your stories with us today at Fraser Heights. He is part of the Vancouver Poetry House poets - great links and resources her for poets and educators young and old! To discover more about Zack - "Google" him!
A little more background for you:
What is Slam Poetry?
Write your own Slam Poetry in 5 easy steps! Video, and discussion. Great links to resources for everyone - how to get involved, start a club, workshops, events, competitions, podcasts and more!
Homework: Add your comments and feedback - either under comments below or as a post on your own blog (this will allow you to add links, visuals or even a video of your own performance). Choose 1 of the following -
- What did you think of Zack's performance at Fraser Heights?
- What do you think of the Slam Poetry "genre" or movement?
- Discuss: Poetry is an art form.
- Were you inspired? Write your own slam poem and/or audio/video record your poem and link it here. See some of the videos above or links to help you out. Be brave - give it a shot!
Minimum expectation - 1 paragraph. (Remember to introduce your topic - as your audience will not have attended our performance at FH.
PS: last assignment before marks cut off this week :)
Slam Poet Assignment
ReplyDeleteOn Monday 14th, during third block English, my class along with some other classes got the chance to meet a Slam Poet. For those of you who don’t know what a slam poet is, it is basically a poet who reads or recites their original work in a way that makes it seem that they are “slamming words” together. The poet’s name was Zack, he is of native heritage and is a very successful slam poet.
During his performance he was very social and open. He tried to connect and keep in contact with his audience. He talked about his experiences in his everyday life and about his past. All though that part was sad, he managed to lift people’s spirits up again by also talking about his more funny experiences. When he recited his poems, for me it allowed me to imagine and picture what he was saying. That was my favorite part of because I enjoyed being transporting to the place he was describing, helping me to better understand the poem.
However there was just one thing that I didn’t like about his presentation of the slam poems. Sometimes he would be talking so fast that I would not be able to understand what he said. After a while I got used to it and it was fine, just at the beginning it was difficult.
All in all Zack’s performance was very well done. If he ever comes back to our school again, I would encourage you, if you can to go and watch his performance. It is something you wouldn’t want to miss.
Today my English class had the opportunity to watch a slam poet. Slam poetry is a poets original piece being recited with a fast, rhythmic pattern. The man presenting his poetry to us was a successful poet from Vancouver named Zack. Since this was all new to me I was very excited to see the work he was going to share with us.
ReplyDeleteWhen Zack started speaking and telling his stories I was surprised. Although we were complete strangers he told us some of the darkest times he encountered in his life. I feel like this helped us understand his poems more knowing some of his thinking. In my opinion, it is important to be able to connect with the audience when you are sharing something as intimate as original poems. I was very impressed by him doing this whether it was intentional or not. I also noticed that while he showed some sensitive meaningful poems he was able to keep the mood light. He shared funny stories and also interacted with the audience quite a bit to keep all of our attention.
It was not just his charming performance I admired but his poems and the manner in which he recited them as well. Zack spoke with so much feeling and emotion it made it more interesting than to watch someone speaking in a monotone voice. Also, he was making exaggerated gestures that grasped my attention. I found his emotions very contagious since they were expressed so intensely. The rhythm in which he spoke kept me listening very intently so I could keep up with what he was saying. Although it was very fast paced, I liked it because it was abnormal and I had not heard poetry recited that way before.
If Zack came back to Fraser Heights I would love to hear more of his poems and hilarious stories!
Our class had the joy of heading over to the school theatre and got the chance to witness a slam poet do a presentation. A slam poet reads or recites their original work with the intent of it being presented to an audience. The poet was Zaccheus Jackson who comes from native heritage and a rather troubling past, which he incorporates into his performances.
ReplyDeleteI think Zack's performance was a wonderful, well-rehearsed, entertaining performance. He had a lot of emphasis on the words he spoke that really captured everyone's attention. He never spoke monotone and had a ton of variety in the way he presented. Zack told us about his troubling past in his performance and how slam poetry came and saved his life and made him the man he is today. It was a very dark topic, but didn’t leave us in the dark for he always told of some of his childhood memories which would bring a smile to our faces. I enjoyed it very much for it was something i hadn’t experienced before. To me slam poetry is something very unique and it is something rather different. It isn’t the norm when it comes to poetry and is not the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word poetry. This is what i think is so great about it. It encourages creativeness and is something "different" from all the other forms of poetry. The one thing i was disappointed with was the fact he spoke a bit too quickly for most people to understand what he was fully saying. Sometimes it got rather distracting.
The way Zach presented was really an art form. Zach presented it in a manner in which he spoke with different tones that matched the words he spoke. He was very active on stage and moved around a lot with lots of hand motions which really added to the art form. Zacks poetry is presented in a matter in which his form of art (poetry) is expressed through the interaction with others with his creative words and actions.
i kinda combined all the questions into one so thats why it looks funny. I should learn to read the instructions better.
DeleteToday, our english ten class had the honour to witness Zaccheus Jackson's slam poetry performance. The slam poet was presented in a fast pace which made us always pay attention. Zack told us about the times when he made bad decisions and how slam poetry played a big part for overcoming his problems.
ReplyDeleteI thought Zack's performance was well presented plus his enthusiam and sense of humour made it much more entertaining. Not once was I ever bored during his performance because he always got the audience envolved. Also, he mentioned some of his interesting childhood memories which got even more of our attention. Not only did his sense of humour got me entertained, his slam poet was also very creative and meaningful. Furthermore, he made his personal experiences into poems which was emotional and taught us a good lesson. His deep voice also made the poem sound more realistic.
Zach's performace was very inspirational because he showed us that even though he had his rough times, he still got through it bravely. I was very glad I had the opportunity to be part of the audience.
On April 14th, our English class had the opportunity to watch Zach Jackson perform slam poetry. Slam poetry is a poet's original poem or story recited with rhythm. I thought Zach's performance was really cool. The way he put feeling into all of his words and how he connected with the audience made the expirience even more enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteZach's poems came from personal expiriences, helping him put more emotion into his stories as well as help us, as viewers, get a better understanding of the background of his poems.
When Zach involved the audience into his presentation, it kept everyone's attention and made the performance more interesting. As well, he used examples we could relate to, which helped us understand the poems and made the poems more meaningful to us as individuals.
I would really enjoy it if Zach came back to perform. He always incorporated new aspects and ideas to each performance he made. Each performance was unique and kept the audience entertained.
Our school was very fortunate to have Zack Jackson perform for us and show off his talent and passion in slam poetry. Zack started off with an explanation of spoken word, which is the type of performance for his poems. He explained that spoken word connects with the audience more. Moreover, he also said that the topics in spoken word can be relatable to the audience just as much as they are to the performer. I liked the fact Zack taught us spoken word while making us laugh at the same time. Then, Zack recited his poems. Notably, all of his poems were real personal stories. He read the poems with extra passion because they were about what he went through in his life. For example, one of his poems was about his experience of Remembrance Day. Through slam poetry the audience discovered his mixed emotions for Remembrance Day, as a result of the historical racial injustice against First Native peoples from Canada. Zack’s performance went deeper than any other poet I’ve seen has gone. The fact he was so open about his personal life caused me to see performing arts in a new way, where the barrier between the performer and audience vanishes. I am now more interested in slam poetry because of this. I hope I can watch Zack performing live again one day.
ReplyDelete