"We write poems, then we go across the country and scream them at people," said slam poet Ken Arkind. Arkind, along with Panama Soweto, performed at Longwood University on Tues., Sept. 29. The Dynamic Duo, as they call themselves, has been working together for five years and has performed at over 200 universities. They are national poetry slam champions.The duo is two best friends and travel across the county to share their poetry. The show started out strong and dwindled at the end. They had a great start, kicking the show off with a poem dedicated to the video game nerds of the world. They have a powerful way of delivering their message. They don't exactly shout, but they use dominant voice to convey their message. It is a loud, crisp deliverance with annunciation to strengthen the poem.
They combine humor with facts, and any video gamer can understand what these men are referring to. The have a variety in their vocal deliverance, using efficient pauses and utilizing their time appropriately.
The second poem was a dedicated to the audience because, as Soweto said, " I believe in you." The third poem, from Arkind, was about Los Angeles. Soweto talked about losing your imagination and encouraged the audience to cling to whatever pieces were left. This particular poem gave me chills and was probably my favorite.
The men then moved into haikus. They shouted off random haikus about a variety of topics. The haiku that sticks out most in my memory is the political haiku that read, "Sarah Palin is a pitbull in a dress. Thank God for Michael Vick." Funny? Appropriate? I really don't know. You make the call on that one.
The next poem referred to spending and our economy. It talked about materialism and how the future would shape up. It was very interesting and they packed a lot of political information into a fun, spirited poem.
Soweto recited an epic love poem to the audience. He went around to various ladies in the crowd and feed them lines from a somewhat cheesy, yet somewhat adorable poem about love. He compared his love to many different things and almost all of them were a success. I was genuinely pleased until he referred to Chris Brown and Rihanna. It was meant for a laugh, but I didn't find it particularly funny. A fair amount of the crowd enjoyed the reference, however, so I guess it worked well enough.
One of the last poems performed was in dedication to a friend who had been going through some hard times. The poem dealt with issues of self-mutilation. Although I feel this is an important topic and I am not upset that a poem was written about it, I'm not convinced that the deliverance was the best. The whole show was a comical high-energy performance with lots of jokes and laughs. This poem was filled with some heavy stuff and was thrown on the audience somewhat unexpectedly.
They proceeded to finish the show with a lighthearted poem about the best video game of all, Super Mario Brothers One. It was a nice ending but I had trouble shaking the gloomy feeling from the previous poem to enjoy the finale.
Ken Arkind and Panama Soweto
