To celebrate Teen Read Week, the H. Leslie Perry Memorial Library broke new ground by providing a performance program specifically for a teen audience Tuesday evening.
Thirty-two teens and siblings and 12 parents and teachers enjoyed an evening of spoken-word poetry, hip-hop and R&B performed by three members of The Collective from Greensboro.
Beginning with Josephus Thompson’s inspiring words about the importance of community involvement, the performance rolled almost without pause as hip-hop poem followed poem, supported by the gentle strumming of and acoustic guitar.
Each performer had his own style: Josephus’ poetry was upbeat, encouraging reading and writing and pointing out the opportunities available to writers in the post-school world; his brother B-Star’s poetry was more clearly linked to rap and hip-hop, expressing his frustration with the criticism his poetry can receive from society at large but reiterating his belief in his destiny as a poet and his ability to help people; finally, Stilts’ guitar not only supported and added to the emotion of the other poetic offerings, but provided the harmonies for his own dreamy, slightly melancholy songs.
Enthusiastic applause followed songs and poetry alike, and the teens were eager to meet and talk with the performers after the show, even getting up a short, impromptu poetry performance of their own.
With the success of the event, similar events are guaranteed to be offered not only during Teen Read Week
in future years, but perhaps as often as once a month at the library. Look for an open-mike poetry reading as soon as November.
To hear The Collective perform again, you can try to catch the presentation “Collective Thoughts 2” at UNC-Greensboro on Nov. 5 or check out the group’s Web site at www.thecollective.ws.
Teen Read Week continued with pizza and a movie Wednesday afternoon and will conclude with a great volunteer opportunity at the Time for Tots program today at 5 p.m. All Teen Read Week prizes will be awarded at the Thursday event.