#PoetryMonth Why Poetry (with Matthew Zapruder)
In honour of Ntional #PoetryMonth Matthew Zapruder is a poet, editor at large for Wave Books, guitarist in the rock band The Figments, and associate professor in the Saint Mary’s College of California MFA Program in Creative Writing. His recent book, Why Poetry is a call to reignite our love affair with poetry. He argues that the way we have been educated has stopped us from being able to enjoy poetry. Our misconceptions prevents us from engaging with poems leading us to feel confused and incapable of connecting to the work.
Zapruder has written several collections of poetry and his poems are represented in several anthologies. Adaptations of Zapruder's poetry have been performed at Carnegie Hall, he collaborated with painter Chris Uphues on For You in Full Bloom (2009), and co-translated, with historian Radu Ioanid, Eugen Jebeleanu’s collection Secret Weapon: Selected Late Poems (2008). He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship, the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the May Sarton Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Matthew Zapruder discusses poetry and his book with Jacke Wilson on The History of Literature.
April Snow - Matthew Zapruder
Today in El Paso all the planes are asleep on the runway. The world is in a delay. All the political consultants drinking whiskey keep their heads down, lifting them only to look at the beautiful scarred waitress who wears typewriter keys as a necklace. They jingle when she brings them drinks. Outside the giant plate glass windows the planes are completely covered in snow, it piles up on the wings. I feel like a mountain of cell phone chargers. Each of the various faiths of our various fathers keeps us only partly protected. I don’t want to talk on the phone to an angel. At night before I go to sleep I am already dreaming. Of coffee, of ancient generals, of the faces of statues each of which has the eternal expression of one of my feelings. I examine my feelings without feeling anything. I ride my blue bike on the edge of the desert. I am president of this glass of water.
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#WritingWednesday - Read to Become a Better Writer
Reading great fiction makes us richer and better able to navigate our own experience and our way in the world.
As Hannah Frankman explains, fiction offers us something we cannot experience in self-help, history, psychology books. Fiction enriches our lives. It allows us to encounter other people, comprehends patterns of evolution, causes us to see a larger picture, encounter the world in a different light, brings us to a deeper understanding - of ourselves, others, and the world around us.
The Walrus, a Canadian magazine dedicated to rich thinking and rich dialogue has a collection of wonderful stories that they have opened up online to readers in order to stimulate creativity and encourage readers to become writers. Here are some of their favourites:
Sources and Further Reading
The Importance of Reading Fiction
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Quotes for Motivation and Presentations
The other day, I was feeling overwhelmed and frustrated that I didn't seem able to make headway on certain goals I had set for myself. Sometimes I have to be honest with myself as to whether I am prioritizing the correct things, or that I should be putting my energy toward the tasks that I would rather avoid, but which would light a fire under me if I accomplished them.
Sometimes finding a little inspiration is necessary. Similarly, finding a quote, image, or story upon which to anchor a presentation can be key. It is not a bad idea to have a collection of ideas and quotes that you find will support you in your work.
Here are some of mine:
Janelle Monáe
"Even if it makes others uncomfortable, I will love who I am.”
- Janelle Monáe
"Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." -Maggie Kuhn
“When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.” - Ellen DeGeneres
“These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.” - Najwa Zebian
"It doesn't get easier. You get better." - Unknown
"I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars." - Og Mandino
Maya Angelou
"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style" - Maya Angelou
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” - Maya Angelou
“Always keep your eyes open. Keep watching. Because whatever you see can inspire you.” — Grace Coddington
"Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire." - Unknown
Billie Jean King
“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” - Billie Jean King
“The human capacity for burden is like bamboo—far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance.” - Jodi Picoult
“A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.” - Unknown
“As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation—either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.
“We don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.” - Barbara De Angelis
“It’s not the events of our lives that shape us but our beliefs as to what those events mean.” - Tony Robbins
“Panic causes tunnel vision. Calm acceptance of danger allows us to more easily assess the situation and see the options.” - Simon Sinek
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Writing Wednesday: Amy Lowell
Amy Lowell was born on February 9, 1874, at her family's a ten-acre family estate of Sevenels in Brookline, Massachusetts. The youngest of five children, Her family was considered in the upper echelons of Boston society. Initially tutored at home, Amy went on to attend Boston private schools and traveled to Europe with her family. At the age of seventeen, she couped herself in Sevenels' immense library and studied literature.
With her mother and sister, she wrote Dream Drops or Stories From Fairy Land by a Dreamer in 1887 printed privately. Her poem “Fixed Idea” was published in 1910 by the Atlantic Monthly and several other poems were published in journals. In October of 1912 Houghton Mifflin published her first collection, A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass.
Lowell was outspoken and controversial, building a career as a poet, publicity agent, collector, critic, and lecturer, joining the imagist movement and working to promote its principles.
Imagism
A reaction in part to romantisicm and Victorian poetry, Imagism was a movement in America and England that utilised specificity of language to evoke clear images for the reader. Haiku and tanka poetry were often influential for imagist poets as they too sought to freeze a moment in time. Adjectives are employed conservatively, selected to enhance the emotions and images evoked in the poem.
Ezra Pound is credited with being the founder of the movement however, its ideals were first developed by T.E. Hulme by 1908. Hulme spoke of the words of a poem being more than merely decorative but comprising the poem's essence.
Writing in the March 1913 issue of Poetry, F. S. Flint, quoting Pound, defined imagist poetry as:
- Direct treatment of the “thing," whether subjective or objective.
- To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.
- As regarding rhythm: to compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of the metronome. - published “A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste.”
By Spring of 1914 disputes arose within the movement and Pound distanced himself. Amy Lowell became the leader of the movement between 1915 and 1917 publishing three anthologies of poetry all under the name of Some Imagist Poets. Eventually, Amy Lowell also distanced herself from the Imagists and the poetry movement became part of the larger modernist movement. Lowell died on May 12, 1925, at Sevenels.
A Fixed Idea
- Amy Lowell
What torture lurks within a single thought
When grown too constant; and however kind,
However welcome still, the weary mind
Aches with its presence. Dull remembrance taught
Remembers on unceasingly; unsought
The old delight is with us but to find
That all recurring joy is pain refined,
Become a habit, and we struggle, caught.
You lie upon my heart as on a nest,
Folded in peace, for you can never know
How crushed I am with having you at rest
Heavy upon my life. I love you so
You bind my freedom from its rightful quest.
In mercy lift your drooping wings and go.
Sonnet
A sonnet is a 14 line poem with a variable rhyme scheme and traditionally in iambic pentameter. Here, Lowell uses the Petrarchan rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA CDCDCD. With such confinements, a sonnet is likened to a box and the aim is to transcend such confinements. The Petrarchan sonnet has a feeling of balance to it, being almost equally weighted into halves through its rhyme scheme. You will notice that Lowell isn't bound to the iambic pentameter rhythm. More contemporary poets have experimented with ways to push and bend the sonnet form to varying degrees. How might this form of meter convey the meaning of the poem?
Your Turn...
What occurs when a classic form is used to explore less typical subject matter?
Choose aspects of the sonnet form that you will use. Pick a specific emotion or moment in time and write your own sonnet using precision in your language. How can you make the rhythm of your poem like a musical phrase?
for other examples and more contemporary takes on the sonnet, see “Voiced Stops” by Forrest Gander and “Incandescent War Poem Sonnet” by Bernadette Mayers.
References and Further Reading
Poets.org: A Brief Guide to Imagism
Poetry Foundation: Learning the Sonnet
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Our Success Lies in Soft Strengths
On Our Demise
“The report of my death was an exaggeration.”
.Much has been written about the impact that millennials are having in interfering with established patterns of work and leisure. If you were to believe it, you would think that millennials (defined by the Pew Research Center as those born between 1977 and 1992) are the most lazy, destructive, and economically irresponsible generation - at least until Gen Z's take over.
Whilst this may make for great clickbait, the truth is for more complex. Humans have been whining about young people since at least Aristotle. I imagine Homo neanderthalensis parents shaking their heads at the bizarre and disruptive behaviour of their child using a hand drill to create a fire. Millenials behave just like any other generation did according to their age. Take this 18th-century letter for example.
“Whither are the manly vigour and athletic appearance of our forefathers flown? Can these be their legitimate heirs? Surely, no; a race of effeminate, self-admiring, emaciated fribbles can never have descended in a direct line from the heroes of Potiers and Agincourt...
”
While hyperbole sells, there is no denying that we are struggling to understand the impacts of our progress and frame the legacy being left for future generations to wrestle with. The internet was to be the great democratizing influence, but once the revolution became "televised" (computerized), it became commodified. There is always a way to make a dollar, and entrepreneurs jumped on to this new platform to make their fortunes, causing changing patterns of consumption and interaction. As circumstances drastically changed, anxiety emerged.
Tristan Harris, co-founder the Center for Humane Technology and Silicon Valley critic, argues, "Technology feels disempowering because we haven’t built it around an honest view of human nature."
We suffer, not from a lack of information, but from an overabundance of it and the choices we make regarding where we direct our attention. Social media algorithms measure clicks, not quality. As Harris points out, outrage gets the most clicks, which then puts more of those same types of posts at the top of our feeds.
We lack the time and mental space to begin to sift through the deluge of information assailing us as companies battle to fill our waking moments with promotion for, and use of, their products. Our reach and our grasp are not always in synch and millennials are at the forefront.
Source: whymillennialsmatter.com
A Reflection on Time
Any day immersed in the endless news cycle has us encounter stories that would measure up against classic dramatic works of ancient Greece. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the dot-com bubble, Enron, The Arab Spring, Brexit, the 2008 crash - millennials are all too aware of how mercurial borders, governments, finances, property, and security truly is. The stock market is an interesting barometer for the psychology of the West. Nowadays, the market is a playground for High-Frequency Traders, people who will knock down mountains or relocate servers by mere feet in order to trade one-millionth of a second faster. Fortunes are fleeting.
Companies such as Facebook and Netflix have created their own culture, language, and lifestyle patterns to the point that their primary competitor is now sleep - and sleep is losing.
When asked about whether he thought that social media was changing the way we are interacting too fast. Tristan Harris states,
"This is an interesting thing too about changing too fast. There’s these dimensions to being human and one dimension, per your point about too fast, is clock rate. If we start breathing at a slower rate, speak at a slower rate, being here with each other, that’s very different than if I just dial that thing way up to 10X that. Things start to fall off the rails when you’re going really fast.
This is one of the things that I’m kind of worried about — human animals, when dialed up past certain boundaries of speed, make poor choices."
It is worthwhile considering "millennial anxiety" as uncertainty over the future to which we are rushing and the implications of the society we are constructing.
Lost Skills...
Manpower Group conducted research across 25 countries with millennials and hiring managers and found that millennials' aims and behaviours are not necessarily at odds with employers' needs. However, how they define ideals such as workplace engagement, career enhancement, and company loyalty may look slightly different in this faster-paced world. It is no wonder therefore that millennials exhibit different patterns of behaviour, preference, and consumption. We are struggling to keep up with gadgets and diversions and the companies trying to generate them. We are the employees of those very companies and consumers of these products. This is requiring educators and employers to change in turn.
Employers are reporting feeling dissatisfied with millennials due to patterns of behaviour: inability to empathize, poor communication skills, mental illness, an abundance or lack of confidence, ingratitude, an absence of accountability, disrespect for authority, lack of professionalism, and resistance to hands-on management or team-work.
Now consider what Google discovered about its employees. By prioritizing "hard" (STEM) skills in its employment practices, Google discovered it was lacking in some very essemtial areas,
"In 2013, Google decided to test its hiring hypothesis by crunching every bit and byte of hiring, firing, and promotion data accumulated since the company’s incorporation in 1998. Project Oxygen shocked everyone by concluding that, among the eight most important qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM expertise comes in dead last. The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas"
After years of telling future employees that they must prioritize competency in "practical" STEM areas over the humanities (languages, literature, history, philosophy, ethics, the arts), we have created a major problem. Instead of blaming millennials for doing exactly what they have been trained to do, sloughing off those "unnecessary" and "impractical" skills that wouldn't contribute to (or indeed might hinder) a lucrative career and lush lifestyle, we must take a sober look at the monster we stitched together and shocked into animation.
This starts with the acknowledgment that prioritizing hard skills and devaluing soft ones does a disservice to employees, workplaces, and to the public in order to rectify the situation. Instead of attempting to keep up with computers, we must specialize in things computers cannot do. As Kamenetz wrote, "computers’ strengths lie in speed and accuracy, while humans’ strengths are all about flexibility" and therefore humans should be focussing on:
1. Solving problems without structure, where rules do not exist.
2. Discovering, collecting, and interpreting new information and deciding what is relevant, connecting concepts.
3. Physical work without routine or structure (Note: these are often categorized as "unskilled" jobs).
4. Being human - empathy, touch, creative expression, expressing emotion, vulnerability.
We remediate this shortfall by re-introducing these skills into schools and enrolling young people in programs that teach these skills. In the meantime, adults in the workforce benefit from training to stregthen these skills.
Source: https://studentloanhero.com/
Remedial Roadmap
This is where I get excited as Vibrance specialises in teaching these skills. With us, clients of all ages build an awareness of self and of others in order to ensure success in the following.
Intrapersonal Skills
• self-awareness
• emotional regulation
Source: http://medicalfuturist.com
• self-confidence
• initiative
• managing mental health and stress
• taking responsibility
• resilience
Interpersonal Skills
• communication (non-verbal and verbal) and listening
• body language
• workplace etiquette
• accepting feedback and criticism
• problem-solving
• relationship building
The Big Picture
We are out-innovating our laws and ethics. Places of innovation are in a race for profit at the expense of quality of life - for both employees and users. As Lunshof, an ethicist at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Genetics argues,
"in biology — the science of living systems — there are no definite answers. At most, there are lines in the sand that are washed away by the next wave of discovery. The theoretical ethics quest for deep answers is slow, remote from and outpaced by the developments at the bench. One practical solution is to bring the philosophy and ethics toolbox to the floor of the lab itself, to the point where the lines begin to be drawn in the first place."
Google discovered its most valuable skills were “soft” skills, not STEM. communication, problem solving, team work, company vision, taking the long view, empathy. These skills added great value to their workplaces. Employers now complain that Millennial employees are lacking these exact skills. We are doing future generations and humankind a disservice by trying to have them embody the processes of technological tools instead of teaching mastery - and excel at doing the things computers cannot. There are, therefore, a myriad of reasons to have philosophers, artists, linguists, historians and those who bring well-developed inter- and intrapersonal skills back to work.
References and Further Reading
Here Is When Each Generation Begins and Ends, According to Facts
Here's Why The Dot Com Bubble Began And Why It Popped
High-frequency trading: when milliseconds mean millions
The origins of the financial crisis
11 Reasons Talented Millennials Get Fired
Top 11 Reasons Millennials Are Getting Fired
21 Things Millennials Are Doing Pathetically Wrong
The Four Things People Can Still Do Better Than Computers
'Psychologically scarred' millennials are killing countless industries from napkins to Applebee's
Millennials Are Over. It's Gen Z's Turn To Ruin Everything
The Five R’s of Engaging Millennial Students
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: Sleep Is Our Competition
How technology is designed to bring out the worst in us
Why is Simon Sinek Adding to the Millenial Myth?
The 14 Most Destructive Millennial Myths Debunked by Data
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Five Essential Skills When Preparing a Presentation
Whether you are preparing to give the only presentation you will ever have to do in your life or presentations are an integral part of your career, these five skills are essential for anyone preparing to speak. As you will see, each skill builds on each other, they are interconnected. By integrating these, you will be ready to give your presentation (well, writing the thing is still up to you)!
1. Be Prepared
Preparation is what makes something appear effortless. The worst mistake people make is thinking they can fake it through a presentation. If you find yourself resistant to preparation and rehearsal, the reason behind your struggle may just be the exact reason you need to take it seriously.
When preparing, also rehearse what you will do if something unexpected occurs. Practice taking a breath, looking around the room, and have a small comment or joke prepared. Be prepared for technology to fail and to carry the presentation without any bells and whistles. This is why having paper notes with you is a must.
Here is an example. If something stops working or breaks:
"Well, it appears [object] has decided to take a long weekend / go home to watch the game / join my first generation ipod in the electronics heap in my garage.
2. Say More Than Your Slides
Source: http://www.emergingedtech.com
You are not creating an audiobook or narrating a movie, YOU are the show! Your slides are merely aides, not the main attraction.
If your audience is able to see your slides, they don't require you to read them aloud. If you can organise your presentation into chunks using keywords on your notes for you to expand upon, you will be contributing much more in your role as speaker and adding true value to your audience's time and attention. This is another reason why preparation is required. Scanning your notes and speaking simultaneously requires practice. Use strategies such as different colours, large writing, and symbols to help you interpret your notes quickly.
In addition, your notes can have reminders to breathe, pause, smile, and slow down at various key moments.
3. Be Aware of Your Crutches
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (2010 - 2018)
Not only do presenters often rely on their slides, speakers may have unconcious verbal or physical habits. These may take the form of filler words such as “um,” “uh,” “so," or pacing, making the same unrelated gesture repeatedly, or leaning on the podium. If you notice yourself doing one of these, don't let it throw you. Simply take a breath and move onward. When rehearsing, record yourself so that you can see or hear your crutches and practice your presentation without them. Your habits have helped you this far, but now you are upping your game - just as a professional athlete might retrain their techniques to prevent future injury or improve power.
4. Be Concise
Source: http://resultsempowerment.com
Do you tend to speak in a flood of words when you are nervous or throw in additional tangents? Draw a straight line for your audience. Be clear on your desired outcome - by the end of your presentation what must the audience walk away with?
If you notice that you are rambling, stop, take a deep breath, smile and have something to help bring you and the audience back together.
Here is an example:
"As you can tell, I have a lot to say / many thoughts on this subject. In essence, what you need to know is... "
5. Breathe and Smile
Laurel and Hardy
You'll notice in the tips above, breathing and smiling are important aspects of helping you get back on track. However, start off right! Smiling will not only make you feel happier and more positive about the experience, it will change your voice. In return, smiling will change the way your listeners feel about you.
Breathing shallowly and becoming anxious will tighten your vocal chords and make your voice go higher. Practice diaphragmatic breathing regularly and feel your anxiety reduce, your vocal tone improve, and your voice have all the "fuel" it needs to be expressive, and heard.
Whatever your aims, we can aid you in achieving your goals with our individualised approach and flexible sessions. Contact us:
#PodcastReview: Storytelling For Adults
I am an avid listener of podcasts, be they news, business, politics, health, economics, culture, literature, education, drama, and more. Sometimes it feels as if I don't have the time to read. Therefore, I love having the opportunity to hear stories while I am doing something enjoyable, such as cleaning, organising, or cooking. Here are two that I am enjoying right now. When I don't have time to read for pleasure, I can listen!
LeVar Burton Reads
I grew up watching LeVar Burton host Reading Rainbow and perform as Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation. His is a fantastic example of a beautifully trained and unique voice, clear, expressive, authentic, and immediately recognisable. As an Actor, Director, Educator & Cofounder of the award-winning digital library for children Skybrary App, it comes as no surprise that LeVar is the face (and voice) of great literature. The first short story I listened to was "What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky" by Lesley Nneka Arimah (the fifth episode of the podcast). I was hooked.
http://www.levarburtonpodcast.com/
Tales
These are not your Disney-style fairy tales. If you like fairy stories but want to hear them in their original, great gory detail, this may be the podcast for you.
Vanessa Richardson is the co-host and researcher of several other podcast shows on the Parcast network, experienced in weaving together storytelling, voice acting, and psychology to educate and entertain listeners.
https://www.parcast.com/tales/
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Transform Your Talk: Ten Tips
When working with clients preparing to give a presentation, we rehearse and break down the speech in detail. We also get into how best to prepare prior to the talk, how to manage unexpected things that might occur during the talk, and how to decompress afterward. Here are some general considerations to get you started:
1. Drink Water
It is important to hydrate your voice well before your talk, even more so if you are in a dry environment or tend to get a dry mouth when speaking. If you are using a microphone, it will amplify those qualities in your voice even further. A warm-up that incorporates your articulators will help to prevent tongue suction and popping. If possible, have water with you when speaking. Don't be afraid to pause at an opportune point in your presentation in order to take a drink if you need it.
2. Get Excited, Not Anxious.
When we drive a car, we don't stare at the barriers. Instead, we look where we want to go. Prior to a competition, athletes will go through every aspect of the game or course, imagining everything detail. As Vanessa Van Edwards says, "Anxiety and excitement are similar emotions the only difference is mindset." Focus on where you want to go, on how exciting this opportunity is. Instead of thinking, "I have to do this" change your mindset into "I get to do this!"
3. Channel Your Nerves
While waiting, move your body. Walk, shake out your hands, contract and release your muscles without movement at the joints, push against a wall. Listen to a song that gets you dancing. Use power poses
4. Breathe
Bring your awareness to your breathing and consciously drop it down into your diaphragm. If you feel adrenaline course through your body or anxiety rachet up, simply inhale for a slow count of four, exhale for a slow count of four. Inhale for a slow count of five, exhale for a slow count of five. Inhale for a slow count of six, exhale for a slow count of six. Inhale for a slow count of seven, exhale for a slow count of seven.
5. Move with Purpose
When speaking, nervous speakers will often sway or pace or gesticulate in ways that are distracting. It's a good idea to video yourself in order to notice your "tells." A good strategy is the "rule of three" sometimes used in theatre.If you notice that you are repeating a gesture more than three times, you are not supporting your words. Instead, walk a "map" of your ideas. When making a new point, walk to a new spot. If getting personal or driving a point home, walk toward the audience. If the room needs to breathe, or you are speaking more universally, put greater space between yourself and the audience.
Source: http://voice-international.com/
6. Your greatest Asset is Your Voice
The quality of your voice can support the content of your talk or detract from it. Developing a voice that is expressive, powerful, and authentic is one of the greatest investments you can make in yourself. This includes the musicality of your voice, the pace with which you speak, how and where you pause, the words you emphasize, and more. The more skilled and intentional you are with your voice, the better you can craft your talk, and the more influential you are.
7. Allow People to Adjust to Your Delivery
Open your talk with a well-rehearsed opening and speak at a slightly slower pace with attention to emphasis and inflection. This will give the audience time to "tune their ear" to the sound of your voice and any accent differences between you.
Pictured: Artiz Aduriz
8. The Audience Wants You to Succeed
Remember that each person in the audience took the time to show up to see your talk. They want you to do well. Few speakers are their best if they perceive the audience as antagonists. Come in with an energy of welcome, high regard, and excitement. Put your focus on them instead of your nervousness and you will transform as a speaker.
9. Allow For the Unexpected
No matter how much you rehearse, allow there to be room for something to happen. Technical glitches, or tripping over your own feet doesn't have to be embarrassing or a "loss of face," it can be an opportunity. Have a joke ready or be prepared to ad lib. The audience might take it as an opportunity to relax.
10. Be Prepared To Be Done.
It is a skillful speaker who has a decompression strategy in place. A presentation will take a lot of energy and may stir up anxiety - which will lead to a crash. You may also experience a lot of emotions stirred up inside you. Have something set up beforehand such as a debrief with a trusted friend, sit down and write a reflection, go for a walk, or sit in a hot tub or bath. Take some deep breaths, shake out your hands.
Sources And Further Reading:
A TED speaker coach shares 11 tips for right before you go on stage
Does body language help a TED Talk go viral? 5 nonverbal patterns from blockbuster talks
You Are Contagious - Vanessa Van Edwards
Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are - Amy Cuddy
Is Your Voice Ruining Your Life? - Roger Love
Whatever your aims, we can aid you in achieving your goals with our individualised approach and flexible sessions. Contact us:
#CreativeInnovative with Lee Su-Feh: Yielding, Dissolving, Fighting, and Dancing Within Inquiry
Lee Su-Feh on Creating, Communicating, and Encountering the Humanity of Others
This is the sixth in a regular series of blog posts in which I speak with exciting artists, innovators, and entrepreneurs exploring how their creative skills have enabled them to do incredible things in their personal and professional lives.
You can find all of these interviews by searching for the tag #CreativeInnovative.
Lee Su-Feh, Still from the film Migrant Bodies, Dir. Laura Bari
Lee Su-Feh is a force of nature. Until December 2017, we have been two ships passing in the night in the “real world” but we operate in some of the same circles. I avidly follow her online and come to her for advice. I am lucky to consider her a mentor and friend. In December, we finally had the opportunity to sit down together and our discussion ranged over the personal, the political, the artistic, and several other topics we won't divulge here.
"The notion that you can make a go of anything all by yourself is a capitalist myth. You are who you are because of others"
Photographer: Joerg Letz
F: Lee Su-Feh, you has a remarkable background in children’s theatre, traditional Malay dance, contemporary dance, contact improvisation, and martial arts, and your career is a neverending cycle of shows, projects, accolades, and collaborations. You have also recently been touring your latest show, Dance Machine. This work consists of a kinetic sculpture, formed by sticks of bamboo suspended from a copper disk, creating an immersive space in which the public is invited to work with the artists, becoming collaborators and mindful participates in cause and effect, play and rest. Oh, and you are an Instructor in the Theatre program at Simon Fraser University where you teach voice.
LSF: You should write my bios from now on!!!
F: Well, I try my best! Now it's your turn to tell me a bit about yourself - what about your training in the arts?
LSF: I did Chinese martial arts as a kid, when I was 11-12. Not a lot. But enough to awaken something in my body, something about the pleasure moving my body, training. When I was 15 or 16, I joined a children’s theatre class led by Janet Pillai, who is now an award-winning arts activist, recognized for her work in cultural mapping. We learned traditional South-East Asian forms like Pencak Silat (martial arts), Wayang Kulit (shadow puppetry), and became part of a larger questioning of what it meant to create contemporary Asian performance out of the debris of colonialism, half-remembered traditions and sitting in the interstices of multiple cultures and languages. We created work and toured across the country. Through this experience of Teater Kanak-kanak, I met my first dance teacher, Marion D’Cruz, from whom I learned traditional Malay dance as well as Western contemporary dance. These lessons took place in the basement of a place called The Temple of Fine Arts, which was a temple honouring Krishna as well as a school for Indian classical dance and music. So I was immersed in Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Kathak, even though I never studied those forms. My first performance in public with Marion D’Cruz and Dancers was a dance from the East Coast of Malaysia called Timang Burung; and we performed it amid a show filled with Indian classical dance with The Temple of Fine Arts. All this is to impress upon you the plurality of approaches, aesthetics and culture that surrounded my entry into the arts. Janet, Marion and Krishen Jit, Marion’s late husband and a notable theatre critic, historian and director in the region, were my teachers and mentors; and they eventually founded, along with others, Five Arts Centre, which remains a provocative arts organization in Malaysia. This hotbed of cultural activity which also grappled with post-colonial politics really set the foundation for me as an artist. I think how I see the world and how I approach performance has been formed by this period. I eventually left Malaysia to go to Paris to study contemporary dance. And eventually ended up in Vancouver, where I continued learning new skills (more Chinese martial arts, more dance, contact improv), but always, always wrestling for my sense of self while being acutely conscious of how power structures play on my body.
F: How Has your art/training taken you to other places? What are some of the most interesting locations you have experienced?
LSF: Lots of places. Lots of complex relationships to different places. Two examples: Paris for being an incubator of my western contemporary dance ideas, and where I awoke to being othered by white society. Manitoulin island recently for showing me a glimpse into Anishnaabeg ways of being and artmaking as an alternative to settler-colonial ways.
Lee Su-Feh and Benoit Lachambre, Body Scan, 2010
F: Many of your projects are collaborative and call on your ability to communicate. What are the benefits and challenges of collaboration?
LSF: Collaboration invites you to expand your knowledge - of yourself, of your collaborators and of the form you are engaged in. Any kind of growth is often also painful and involves judgement, a dissolving of who you think you are, a constant question of whether you yield to new knowledge or to take a stand and fight for your (tenuous) beliefs.
F: How did you decide to take your art in this direction?
LSF: I’m not sure it was a decision. The notion that you can make a go of anything all by yourself is a capitalist myth. You are who you are because of others - humans and non-humans. I usually choose to work with people who I think I have something to learn from.
F: Did this require you to take on additional training or did you encounter any learning curves?
LSF: Choreography requires communication skills - listening deeply, speaking honestly, while taking care of everyone’s humanity. Maybe my history as a marginalized, racialized person has contributed to my skills in this department. But as I encounter new knowledge and new areas of my ignorance, I also become inspired to learn new skills. Contact improvisation, voice, new ways of dancing...
F: What drives you in your work?
LSF: My questions. About myself, about my relationship to the world, about my relationship to the sacred.
F: How do you create? From where do you draw your inspiration?
LSF: Usually, the spark of a new project comes from the unfolding of the previous project. For example, the beginning of my current project Dance Machine was 8 years ago and began as simply an inquiry into the energetic relationship between the human body and inanimate objects. This question came out of working on a piece called Body Scan with the Montreal choreographer Benoit Lachambre, where we worked a lot with fabrics and texture and sensation. I really loved the energetic quality of the costume designer we worked with, Alexandra Bertaut and proposed to her that we explored some things together. I proposed that she do my physical practice, which was deeply informed by Qigong and martial arts, and then see if she could respond by making objects. I would then live with those objects for a period of time and see what came out of my body as a response to those objects. It was during this period of living with the objects - which were fabric based, with personal objects of mine knitted and woven into them - that I went into the studio with my friend and colleague, the choreographer and dancer Justine Chambers. For about a week, we hung the objects up with fishing line, made very shoddy pulley systems and the beginning idea of an environment that was attached somehow to the dancer emerged. After that, I invited a designer/architect Jesse Garlick to help us actually build it. Along the way, I also started to want it to address a whole bunch of concerns - political, social, and underneath it all, my questions about what it means to dance. Anyway, this is a long story. But the gist of it is that works don’t usually pop out of anyone’s head fully formed. I’m usually looking to ask the most interesting question possible and then to construct a process that can lead me to an even more interesting question at the end of that process. Repeat as often as necessary.
You can follow Lee Su-Feh and her work through her company website, Battery Opera, her blog, and on her Twitter page.
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#WritingWednesday What Can We Learn from Standup?
The other day I began watching Pete Holmes' comedy special Faces and Sounds on HBO. Sometimes I will play something in the background as sound to mask other, the more distracting central air, refrigerator, and old house noises. Pete Holmes quickly had my full attention. His incredible facial reactions and self-deprecating humour won me over. Something that is unique about his special in this era of Chappelle, Silverman, Minaj, Maron, Hart, Schumer ... and that is how clean his comedy was. I love shock controversy, I love comedy, but sometimes it's refreshing to find laughter in something that doesn't require me to throw my relatives out of the room beforehand.
Something He Said Stayed With Me:
"I'm a silly, silly fun boy, right?"
Well, that was so adorable I perked up and stopped working in order to listen.
"And one of the reasons is I've recalibrated my brain to reward me for the things I am doing, not the things I could be doing. And that's what I think you should do, that's one of the keys to happiness, love yourself for the things you are doing, not the things you could be doing [....] I don't mess with my joy quota [....] you gotta keep an eye on your joy quota"
This got me thinking about my own "joy quota." When do I intentionally gift myself moments of pleasure with intention and fully experiencing them in order to make a deposit into my joy account and truly allowing myself to laugh or feel joyful.
I sat down and tried to come up with a few:
- Getting silly with my husband and giggling until my face hurts
- My father-in-law's deceptively outrageous sense of humour
- Shuffling my bare feet through carpet
- Listening to this guy's ridiculous laugh (at 1:08:48)
- Sitting in a hot tub, or better yet, attending a traditional Korean bath/spa
- Creating art with my hands
- Stretching in bed following a rare, long, deep sleep
- Reading for pleasure
- Listening to the 2 Dope Queens podcast
- Standup comedy by Aparna Nancherla and Issa Rae
- Thomas Haden Church in Divorce
- Stephen Merchant in Hello Ladies
- Pete Holmes in Crashing
- Eugene Levy, his son Dan Levy, and Catherine O'Hara in Schitt's Creek
I love looking at these photos because I don't often get to see myself in the midst of experiencing joy. Not a posed selfie representation, but being captured in the midst of a spontaneous reaction. It reminds me that the right people bring out the best in me.
Standup comedy has a lot to teach writers of all persuasions. Most comedians are writers first and foremost, sweating over the wording of each joke in preparation for bringing those jokes to the stage and utilising body language, pace, pauses, pitch, inflection, emphasis, and a range of public speaking skills to connect with the audience and create a performance.
Comedians train themselves to be observers and writers - both requiring attention to detail. They typically look to their own experiences and interactions as raw material. They listen closely to how people speak in real life and record dialogue to use later. They understand that simply changing the order that information is given or the order of words will change something from an anecdote to an act.
Comedians must also understand human behaviour. In observing the world around them, in crafting their jokes, and in connecting with their audiences their comedy is only as good as their ability to "get it". Is anything as immediate as the feedback one gets from a set in front of an audience? While I have never done a standup as a comedian, in the course of MCing I have written and performed sets designed to elicit laughter. It can really be hit or miss at times, a joke that I have been gloating over is met with silence in the room. Something I throw out there off the top of my head requires me to pause and wait for the laughter to die down. Even in the course of conversation, notice what seems to just "work."
Comedy is about understanding the mechanics of what makes something funny in that language, which also incorporates an understanding of cultural and contextual nuance. Moroccan-French Comedian Gad Elmaleh is a celebrity in Europe who played to sold-out arena shows. Growing up in Morroco, Elmaleh speaks Arabic, French, and Hebrew. He decided to create a career in America, in English, which meant starting over.
Elmaleh made a film "10 Minutes in America," documenting his experience. The film explores how comedy doesn't translate, it is much more than simply transferring each word into the new language, jokes must be crafted from the ground up.
Comedians Must Have Deep Knowledge of:
- Language - including puns, turns of phrase, and the mechanics of what makes something funny
- Body language and facial expressions
- Verbal gesticulations - a well-placed sound can put an audience in stitches
- Cultural sensibilities - including cliches and stereotypes
- Specific audience - the community, the venue, the night
Writing Practice
A. Exercise 1:
This week, listen and/or watch some comedians and play close attention to their set-ups and wording. Better yet, compare a comedian telling the same joke during a different performance. Notice how the order of words are changed in order to become more effective jokes or how segues evolve to better introduce the new subject matter.
B. Exercise 2:
- Pick a short personal story that you like or have told to friends and family.
- Write it out, aiming for around 250 words.
- Now use 100 words to tell the story.
- Then tell it in 50 words.
- Now 25 words.
- Write it using 140 characters.
Achieving a full stand-up routine is so difficult because a successful set is so condensed. Amateur comedians (and writers) often have extraneous detail that derails the joke, lowers the energy, or occludes the narrative. Learning to generate material and then filter and compress it is a powerful skill. Learning to be concise and to choose each word for its ability to convey meaning will transform your writing.
C. Exercise 3:
Pick a story out of the newspaper and cast yourself in the story. For example, a government turns into a metaphor for a dysfunctional family, a silly local incident becomes something your cousin did, an episode involving a celebrity mirrors something you have done. Do not try to be funny, just go for 10.
Further Resources
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