Spoken Music: Fran Varian visits Zeum

This morning Ari's friend, Fran Varian came and talked to us - she is a spoken word artist. I might have mentioned spoken work in my project in media and self image because that's how I'm performing it. Spoken word is a kind of performance art in lyrics, poetry, and stories are spoken instead of sung. So it's like talking music.

Fran gave us a insight into the world of spoken word like slam poetry, which is a competition with eight people who have two minutes to make up their own piece of work and get judged by random people from the audience. Wow that must take extreme talent to make up something in two minutes... it takes me weeks to come up with something even close to a poem.

The artistic process is different for everybody... but I'm seeing that the base of a spoken word poem is to "be vulnerable". A lot of artists write about things that are really personal. This can be hard because people feel uncomfortable but also really easy because you are writing about a subject you know the most - yourself. When you talk about yourself lots of people might respond to it because they might have felt the same way or had the same experiences.

I have never really performed as myself - I'm use to getting characters and being someone else. But I can be someone else and even be myself at the same time. I talked about this with Fran and the group. Even in getting a script and being a different character can be a way to "be vulnerable".

Fran told us about an organization called Youthspeaks.org it helps teens get into spoken word. It gives them a chance to really have a voice and express their feelings, opinions.

I'm using spoken word in my project so it was good chance to hear about her process and actually hear one of her poems. It was cool because the hardest part for me was to get down and write what I wanted to say. Hearing Fran talk about her process of writing made working on my project a little bit easier. I never thought of myself as a writer but in reality if you write something down on paper you're a writer.

Poetic Heroes

Hero.

"A woman/man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for their brave deeds and noble qualities. The principal female/male character in a story, play, film, etc."

Well, that's how Webster's dictionary defines hero. But for me a hero is more than someone I admire it's people who help me make up what I am today. There are many heroes in my family that I love and respect but to go deeper, my more personal are people who I admire in the industry that I hope to go into, media.

For my end of the year project at Zeum I am working on Media and my self image - how people in the media have affected who I am and inspired me to go further with whatever I chose to do. Like Gaby's but different. The people who I feel closely connected to are Oprah Winfrey, Queen Latifah, and Will Smith, not only are they successful in the roles they play on screen and on stage but being African American they have became respected in anything they choose to do.

There are so many people that I could look up to, why are these people what's so special? Will Smith and Queen Latifah are both singers in the hip hop business and Oscar nominees. They all are able to do a wide variety of performances like from comedy to drama, to musicals. They're all entrepreneurs. Oprah is a great inspiration because she also came from a background of severe poverty. These are people who do work for their communities.

To deliver my ideas for this project, I'm going to do a spoken word performance. Now, at first I wasn't so sure about spoken word, it is a type of performance, but not like any I ever done before.

I tend to lean more toward to stage performance where I'm given a script and and I act out a character. Through this project though, I can perform alone, myself - which it's hard to say, but it might be the hardest role I have yet to experience. Kwesi and Ari explained the concept of spoken word and other things I can do with different types of media. I get to learn more about this type of performance and work on being able to get my ideas onto paper and on stage.

My media, My self image

How has the media portrayed me?

Since I was little, I have always heard of female Latinas not finishing high school and ending up pregnant. I know that this is not expected of me from my family and friends, but this is what the media expects of me.

For an end of the year project at ZEUM we were asked to do some type of art work that refelcted on one of these topics: Family history and Memory, Conflict Resolution, Human Rights and Media and Self Image. I choose to reflect on Media and Self Image by doing an animation that portrays what the media expects of me to become and what I want to become.

As I mentioned before, growing up as a Latina, I have always had stereotypes follow me wherever I went. Starting in middle school, my 8th grade Principal has said it himself that "If [we] didn't graduate from high school, which was most likely to happen, there were a lot of jobs opening for us that paid enough to get by". Later in High School I began to notice that many of the girls that I went to school with had gotten pregnant and were forced to drop out of school. This really upset me because it was like they threw their lives away. From then on, I knew that I wanted to be more than another fact to fit another stereotype.

What I am now is a high school Latina who goes to a private school in the presidio and is getting ready to apply to college next year. I hope to finish college and move on to graduate school and become something other than what is expected of by the media.

I hope that this art work will show others that the media doesn't have to decide who you are to become, you are in control of choosing what YOU want to become.

* Peace *



GABY

No Fear on Stage

Hey this is MICHELLE F.. I want to write a little bit about performing.

I've performed in the plays and musicals at my high school for the past 4 years I am currently in the musical Meet Me in St. Louis.

I've been working here as a zeummaster for about 11 months soon to be a year. That's right. And there are many performance opportunities at Zeum.

Music Production Lab...Production Stage... music is a big part of my life something I can't live without.

I am able to use the skills I've been cultivating at acting at school here by making my own performances in MPL and at the Production Stage, and giving tips to kids who are shy. I come up with ideas on what they can do and even work with them if they need extra help ..so they don't feel so nervous. I like seeing them being able to perform something and really breaking out of their shells and being creative. The visitors have a lot of fun doing performances and are often ecstatic that they can take their work home and show their families.

Oh...and I have ideas for workshops that revolve around performing and making performances.

I think can help visitors learn a little more about what they can do. They can work on ideas for script and even go further and get a little technique like vocal warm ups to get ready for the show and performance technique they can learn a variety of things that can contribute to their video make it more developed then it normally would in a typical Zeum visit.

I have been performing for almost half of my life and it is a great thing. I never really took it seriously till about sophomore year of high school - that's when I decided that this is what I really love and what I want to continue for the rest of my life. Performing means to me being able to express myself. Performing helped me break out of being shy and sculpted me to be very outgoing and like one of the "drama kids" at school. Even when I am having a bad day I can always (even though it may be extremely tedious) rehearse for the current play or musical because on stage I can express my self let my anger out through song and whatever character I am trying to convey.

Performing has changed my life. It's given me a chance to be creative with myself and things around me. I have learned how to be different in a way that suits my personality. Usually with my friends I am the more outgoing and loud one.

I'm not scared to play any character. I'm able to get crazy. Like everything from the female basketball player in "Shooting Starts'' to a trumpet playing entertainer in "Gypsy". I'm learning what's possible, what I can do.