A short Q and A with one of the performers for the Dudley Cafe event this weekend.
Something I'm going to ask more poets: Do you come from a family that supported or even understood poetry prior to you getting into it?
My family didn’t understand why I was doing poetry, but they did accept it as a hobby.
Who was it that made you want to be a poet? Was it a specific author? A performer you saw live or on YouTube?
I have a professor at Roxbury Community College who told me that I had the perfect influence for poetry. He said he could sense something called the dragon in me. He had me perform one time, and I just fell in love with it since my favorite artist was Black Ice. At that time I had seen a ton of YouTube videos of him and fell in love with the stage.
I attended a college where the poetry scene among students just wasn't there. It had to be built (or re-built) from the ground up. What is the scene like in Roxbury Community College?
Roxbury Community College's Poetry dynamic had to be revamped when I became president. I wanted something that all the students could enjoy but give them their voice at the same timejj. I felt like our professor knew a lot more about the literary side of poetry but he wasn’t too familiar with the performance side of poetry in our community. I made it a personal mission to make more people aware of what was going on the community by performing in the community and bringing those kind of events to the college.
When I started hosting events, "slam" was still a (somewhat) newish thing, and some people used the word almost as a code, a hidden slur. Now with the advent of things like audio/video access to poets and YouTube channels dedicated to performers, is the page vs. stage argument even more pointless than it was two decades ago? What is slam now in the age were everyone can be a performer without even a stage?
I think poetry and comedy are in the same place as far as this debate,and I don’t think it’s pointless because the creativity is different. I personally love the stage element more because it can force you to be a little bit more creative on spot with your body, your words and how you present the material. When I watch social media performances, I like to see skits with the poetry (which I can’t really do on stage by myself), and with video you have the setting that you want as far as the background, and you can edit it 100 times so that it’s clean and precise. I think both are very important for poets to learn and develop as they get to a higher level.
What's been the most interesting event you've read at (I'm guessing Comicon)? Did the audience contribute to it, or was it something you were able to pull off?
Comicon was amazing and different from all the other events because I was forced to have bigger movements and really focus on my performance. People aren’t really there for me. They're there for the cosplay and the people selling cool stuff and the wrestlers. So for me to be in that position, I had to gain my audience since they were not just put in front of me ,was really cool.
What's been the most interesting connection you've made since performing?
I’ve made so many different connections just being around the city to name a few Kenny Pina, Amanda Shea, Jeff Robinson just to name a few. But there is so many people that have influenced everything that I’ve been a part of. One of my biggest shout outs has to go to Crystal Beck because she really was my mentor throughout everything I’ve been doing, and I wouldn’t really be where I’m at without her guidance.
Any poems you've written that get lukewarm reactions but are dear to you?
"Mama (Hope)" gets a real lukewarm reaction but I love that poem and I love the story of how I made that poem and I don’t think I can ever let go.
Joseph Skoot Mosby will be performing this weekend as part of the Stonecoast Review release party.
My family didn’t understand why I was doing poetry, but they did accept it as a hobby.
Who was it that made you want to be a poet? Was it a specific author? A performer you saw live or on YouTube?
I have a professor at Roxbury Community College who told me that I had the perfect influence for poetry. He said he could sense something called the dragon in me. He had me perform one time, and I just fell in love with it since my favorite artist was Black Ice. At that time I had seen a ton of YouTube videos of him and fell in love with the stage.
I attended a college where the poetry scene among students just wasn't there. It had to be built (or re-built) from the ground up. What is the scene like in Roxbury Community College?
Roxbury Community College's Poetry dynamic had to be revamped when I became president. I wanted something that all the students could enjoy but give them their voice at the same timejj. I felt like our professor knew a lot more about the literary side of poetry but he wasn’t too familiar with the performance side of poetry in our community. I made it a personal mission to make more people aware of what was going on the community by performing in the community and bringing those kind of events to the college.
When I started hosting events, "slam" was still a (somewhat) newish thing, and some people used the word almost as a code, a hidden slur. Now with the advent of things like audio/video access to poets and YouTube channels dedicated to performers, is the page vs. stage argument even more pointless than it was two decades ago? What is slam now in the age were everyone can be a performer without even a stage?
I think poetry and comedy are in the same place as far as this debate,and I don’t think it’s pointless because the creativity is different. I personally love the stage element more because it can force you to be a little bit more creative on spot with your body, your words and how you present the material. When I watch social media performances, I like to see skits with the poetry (which I can’t really do on stage by myself), and with video you have the setting that you want as far as the background, and you can edit it 100 times so that it’s clean and precise. I think both are very important for poets to learn and develop as they get to a higher level.
What's been the most interesting event you've read at (I'm guessing Comicon)? Did the audience contribute to it, or was it something you were able to pull off?
Comicon was amazing and different from all the other events because I was forced to have bigger movements and really focus on my performance. People aren’t really there for me. They're there for the cosplay and the people selling cool stuff and the wrestlers. So for me to be in that position, I had to gain my audience since they were not just put in front of me ,was really cool.
What's been the most interesting connection you've made since performing?
I’ve made so many different connections just being around the city to name a few Kenny Pina, Amanda Shea, Jeff Robinson just to name a few. But there is so many people that have influenced everything that I’ve been a part of. One of my biggest shout outs has to go to Crystal Beck because she really was my mentor throughout everything I’ve been doing, and I wouldn’t really be where I’m at without her guidance.
Any poems you've written that get lukewarm reactions but are dear to you?
"Mama (Hope)" gets a real lukewarm reaction but I love that poem and I love the story of how I made that poem and I don’t think I can ever let go.
Joseph Skoot Mosby will be performing this weekend as part of the Stonecoast Review release party.
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