“You can write anything into a poem,” said College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Paul Black, Speak For Yourself’s publicist. “Spoken word is important because it allows people to express themselves in so many ways.”
Speak for Yourself, Boston University’s spoken word group, is in the final stages of preparing for its show case “Suck My Diction” on Friday at 9 p.m. in BU Central.
Speak President Kemi Alabi, a CAS senior, said the event is a must for anyone who has never experienced spoken word poetry.
“Speak for Yourself is an amazing community of writers and any writer would be lucky to find such a supportive and dynamic group,” Alabi said. “Speak is an open, safe space to be creative.”
Friday’s showcase is expected to garner a turnout of about 100 people, Alabi said. Speak For Yourself’s performances tend to attract from 50 to 150 attendees.
“Speak has a healthy following at BU,” Alabi said.
Black said he feels the group performs with the goal of spreading poetry to the masses.
“One of my favorite things Speak did this year was stand up on the steps outside the Tsai Performance Center and just perform poetry to the people walking by,” Black said. “Aside from that, a lot of us are trying to innovative and try new things with our poetry and break outside the coffee shop poetry norms.”
College of Communication freshman Taylor Daly, who has attended three Speak for Yourself performances in the past, said the group has inspired her to delve into spoken word.
“I’m going to this event because, first, one if my best friends is performing, and second because I’ve fallen in love with spoken word ever since I went to their poetry picnic last year,” Daly said.
Rebecca Ness, a freshman in the College of Fine Arts, who also plans to attend the showcase, said she enjoys how spoken word combines music and poetry.
“Because it’s unstructured it’s a freer way to express yourself compared to structured poetry, like sonnets,” Ness said. “Personally, I found that I could connect with deeper parts of myself that I was afraid to explore or think about when I wrote slam poetry.”
Black said that poetry is a great tool for expression and exploration.
“Poetry is free to be as honest, exaggerated, or made up as the author wants it to be,” Black said.
Alabi, who has performed in Speak For Yourself since her freshman year, said the showcase would be the height of the year for many poets who have worked throughout the semester to workshop and to perform their work.
“Speak for Yourself features a talented group of writers who have written and re-written and edited to perfection the pieces they’ll be performing on Friday,” she said. “No one will leave disappointed.”
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