JOHNNY MACRAE'S POETRY WORKSHOP

By Betty Bennett

On January 22, Rita Grimaldi and I joined a workshop at The Spill, sponsored by the Peterborough Youth Poetry Experience, featuring Johnny MacRae, a spoken word artist from BC. 

Johnny does a lot of work in BC high schools. His energy and manner invite a warm rapport with young or older workshop participants, and bridge the gap between what may be perceived as “old, boring” poetry and hip, youthful spoken word.

 

Johnny opened his workshop with a discussion about how he uses objects as a device to describe feelings that might otherwise be difficult to express or to hear.  The vase, the coat, the old boots become the narrator, creating a slightly easier distance between the poet/ the listener and the emotion.

He then led us through a set of exercises or play to loosen us up physically, release inhibitions or stress and make us more conscious observers of the other workshop participants. The warm-up was vocalizing a non-verbal sound accompanied by a physical gesture, small or exaggerated, and passing it around the circle.  

We moved on to “zooming”.  Making eye contact and “zooming” an imaginary ball across a circle to someone you don’t know. When another group is holding a meeting nearby in the same space, it certainly deals with any shyness you might feel about looking silly. 

The final part of the workshop was a partnered exercise in which we each described an object precious or special to us after gazing steadily into our partners eyes for a full minute.  Not easy to do, whether with someone you know or a stranger.  The eyes, it is said, are the windows of the soul, and this alone is a challenging piece of performance art.  

After we described our object, our partner took ten minutes to write their impressions of our object from our description of it.  

At the end of the exercise, we had the option of sharing our written piece with the group.  The impressions ranged from brief, evocative meditations to fully realized poems. 

It was an engaging workshop, led by a supportive, encouraging and generous artist.  Using an object as narrator is an idea that, I think, would lend itself not only to poetry, but to developing a different point of view for traditional or personal storytelling.