Posted 9:04 AM by Bonnie

Poetry in Sumter! Someone has finally opened up a forum for us poets here in Sumter, SC! I have tried to get open mic at our local coffee house, but they didn't want to stay open at night. Our only book store is in the mall, so no go there... but!! last night someone with some pull got the Opera House (which is no longer used) to open up and let some poets from Columbia, SC come in and wet our appetites for more.

The day started with a 4 PM poetry workshop, where we learned about imagery, strong endings, and having a question that needs answered in the poem. Kimberly Sims, a performance poet headed the workshop. What was sad was only one other person showed up. We need more culture in this little college town, but it is hard to get people to understand the beauty of poetry.

At 8:30 Kimberly performed some of her poems and also read some from page. I was totally impressed. She has a website if you would like to learn more about her. She has also been on the Columbia, SC slam team that won various competitions.

The South Carolina Slam team was great!! They did individual presentations and ones where they combined different views. One between the Minister and a young gay man each defending their point of view was especially exciting and awe inspiring. It was titled Only One Time and I am going to try to find the CD if only to share that one poem with everyone I know.

After they completed their performance they had open mic. Only 6 of the 25 people in the audience signed up for it and yes, yours truly was one. I performed my poem written for my maternal grandfather titled Irish Songs and was surprised in a 95% black audience that it was received so well. My poems aren't as loud or dynamic as what most performed, but I think my quiet poem after all the yelling into the mic might have been a pleasant change. Another young man, from Mexico, who learned to speak English but never to read it, read his poem in Spanish and he had the English translation, so one of the men from the Slam Team read the English version. His poem, like mine, was quiet and more personal and very very moving. What courage it took for him to get up there hoping someone would read the translation for him. He told me he writes for his soul and you could feel it in his words. As I told him, I didn't care if I couldn't understand all the words in Spanish, his reading was so moving you didn't care what the words meant, just how it made you feel.

Then the fun began!! Improv poetry!! What a hoot!!! The Columbia Slam Team does this for entertainment purposes only :-). They have people from the audience shout up ideas for a poem and each of them has to come up with a poem centered around that theme. One was chocolate shoes which one of the members actually managed to turn into a moving poem about her mother and a love of chocolate. When no one else could come up with a subject I suggested hummingbirds and two of the three, from the 5 member team, who were there did wonderful poems off the cuff. The third, the clown of the group, had us rolling on the floor with tears streaming we were laughing so hard as he walked to the mic, softly sang... oh hummingbird, oh hummingbird, I know nothing about you hummingbird. Then went on to do a little poem asking why someone would want him who knows nothing of hummingbirds to do a poem about hummingbirds, and then ended with his little song.

The evening ended on that note and a reassurance that this would become a monthly event in Sumter. I hope so!! I loved it!! I had a ball!! I wish it could be once a week!