Def Jam poet Dana Gilmore rocks open mic

The event invited students to express themselves with poetry.

By Matt Schur

Published Sept. 18, 2009

On a crisp Thursday night at Peace Park, the mood was all about passion as the Black Programming Committee hosted Poetry in the Park.

Dana Gilmore, who has been featured on seasons three and four of HBO's “Def Poetry,” headlined the event.

The night started with free food, conversation and most importantly, music. There were a variety of genres, but the focus was rap, which made for the perfect segue into spoken word.

Spoken word is a type of poetry that emphasizes the performance but offers great creative freedom for the poet to manipulate words in a multitude of fashions. Students met this challenge as they recited poems with physical movements, singing and rapping.

The styles ranged, but the confidence remained constant. The sounds became as sweet as the words, which echoed off the trees for the whole park to hear.

"I thought they did so well," Gilmore said of students' performances. "They were really confident and had such a passion for what they wrote about. It was great to see."

Performances ranged from light-hearted subjects, such as a culture obsessed with Facebook, to more serious poems about what inspired the poets and their own hardships. The most common topic was love. At times, love was embraced warmly, but most often the poets talked about love lost.

Most of Gilmore's poems regarded love and her relationships with men.

Gilmore, who hails from Kansas City, is beginning a tour to promote her new album. The CD is a different turn in subject matter for her as she said the poems are a tribute to men. Although Gilmore's poems aren't solely feminist, the tone is definitely a call out to women. "Wife, Woman, Friend," a poem Gilmore performed Thursday as well as for “Def Poetry,” focuses on a failed relationship where she acted like a wife to a man who ultimately only treated her as a friend.

Gilmore acknowledges these problems are universal, but she talked at great lengths about how these poems are very personal.

"A lot of my inspiration comes from what I've been through and the people who are close to me like my grandmother and my mom," Gilmore said.

She revealed these insights while introducing her poems. At these times she was soft-spoken and light heartedly joked about everything from her vulgar language (her first poem was entitled "Fuck You Too") to her relationship problems. This tone is her natural speaking voice.

But something changes the second she starts reciting; her voice becomes loud and powerful, her smile is wiped away, the tempo increases and she works hard to emphasize each syllable of every word. The biggest part of spoken word is this release of feelings, which was evident throughout the night. This is the performance part of spoken word and it is the best part of Gilmore's poetry.

This passion is engulfing and her confidence immediately reels in the audience.

"You have to be confident in what you do," Gilmore said. "Don't worry about what everyone else says."

The Black Programming Committee will be hosting another spoken word night Oct. 15 at the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center, where confidence and passion will once again flow through the speakers.