As John Rives sees it, there are two types of poets: “the mainstreamers” and “the performers.”
The mainstreamers typically hold advance degrees and read primarily for their own pleasure. The performers write for their audiences, primarily to provoke a reaction. As far as Rives sees it, he’s neither.
“I know that it’s hard to rock a crowd,” said Rives, who goes merely by his last name. “But at the same time, I don’t take notes on getting my mind blown — I’m just enjoying it.”
Still, however Rives may see himself, last night, standing before about 60 students at the Hoff Theater, Rives was performing.
In an event co-sponsored by Student Entertainment Events and TerPoets, he ripped through nine poems, including “Kite” and “Op-Talk,” a poem about a secret language shared between the narrator (Rives) and his sister that involved adding an “-op” sound before the vowels of ordinary words.
Rives’ 21st century influences were on display throughout the night. The bulk of his performance focused on “multimedia poems” that interlaced computer-generated images with spoken word performance.
One of those poems, comprised entirely of emoticons, told a story about a boy in a love with a girl through “i heart u’s”, “lols” and awkward silences.
A second related a “how-to” lesson on trespassing in New York City. Told through a photo slideshow, the viewer follows the camera as it crosses onto a barge and climbs onto a crane, finally ending with a beautiful view of the city.
The poem left a powerful impression on Chris Corces, SEE’s graduate adviser.
“I just enjoyed the way he puts words and pictures together to tell a story in a unique way, and in the end he tells a story about the world around you,” Corces said.
SEE Performing Arts Director Amina Goheer also said she enjoyed Rives’ use of multimedia.
“I feel a lot of times people think technology is ‘anti-creativity,'” Goheer said, adding that Rives defies this notion entirely.
Rives said he was first inspired to incorporate media into poems during a conference at Hewlett-Packard. He performed a quick poem at the conference and then proceeded to sit through a presentation on multimedia business.
By the end of the event, Rives asked himself: If multimedia could be incorporated into business, why couldn’t it be a part of poetry? He used his earnings from the Hewlett-Packard performance to buy a MacBook.
Rives’ transition into multimedia poetry has changed the way he perceives and identifies with his poems.
“Now, I connect with a poem if it looks like what I hoped it would look like,” Rives said.
He added that he feels satisfied with any poem that he “sticked the landing visually.”
Rives wasn’t the only poet on stage last night. He called on several students to read their own work.
The students included junior history major Atif Myers, junior English major Alexa Grey and senior English major Kenton Stalder.
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