Poetry In Voice

A few nights ago I was randomly searching Google for teacher-related stuff, typing in the search engine  things like: "Awesome Teachers", "Inspirational Teachers", all in the good-nature that I was semi-preparing for my futuristic job at a high school somewhere teaching English and SOSE... that's the plan anyway, after this year's over, once the books are published, time for a teaching endeavour. And in all of my infinite distractions, I managed to come across this amazing initiative called, "Poetry In Voice", what it is, is basically the organisers of this event collect the winners of each school (I think it's around Canada) and they host a poetry recital competition. Must say, I was completely gobsmacked at the talent I saw. In the poetry recital, students were to choose a poem (could be written by anyone) and then they are to be judged on their recital skills. These students are just so inspirational. I usually fall back on my page when I recite poetry, but things like the tone of voice, expression, etc they posses is just amazing, just goes to show all the possibilities when one is performing. These students have inspired me to become even a more 'rounded' poet. Here's some clips about what I mean... be prepared to be WOW-ed!

This first one is by Sydney Gilchrist, she is reciting a poem called "Plenty" by Kevin Connolly. Love the straight-forwardness, conviction and humour she brings to life in her recital.

I'm usually not a fan of John Keat's poetry, as I find it often obscure and riddled with Old English language, "ye olde", "dath", "nay", yeah you get the point.. but Amelia Druskis, brought "La Belle Dame Sams Merci" to life with her hauntingly beautiful voice, notable also is the believability of what she is saying shines through- in other words, she owned this performance.

Awwww man, this next guy is awesome, WOW, such a suave, dusky and smooth voice Jonathan Welstead has. I know that he is the winner of "Poetry In Voice" 2012, and I can see why. This is Jonathan Welstead reciting Preludes by T.S. Eliot.

Estera Musiala has got conviction. She draws you in with such a commanding facial expression and the way she says the words. Estera Musiala reciting "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg. Remind you of another recent YouTube sensation...??? :D

Malvika Chowdry reciting Gitanji 35 by Rabindranath Tagore. Truly inspirational recital.

And the winner for the 2011 "Poetry In Voice" recital competition is Alexander Gagliano. Hear him recite this piece of poetry: "Journey Of The Magi" by T.S. Eliot. Silky stuff.

As a final note, I think it's important to mention what the host of this event said when posing the question: "Why Poetry?". He made a note simply that poetry is beautiful, that is why. Also, I need to say to all the students who competed in this, WOW amazing job everyone, I have to admit it is better than any slam poetry or poetry recital event I have ever been to in Brisbane or Australia for that matter. A+.