Spoken Word Poetry

In 2002 I accompanied our daughter, Dana Courtney, to a youth poetry workshop.  She had won an award and was invited to deliver her work in person.  It was a large event with several hundred teenagers.  I had the opportunity to hear many poems – not knowing they actually were a style of writing and delivery -- called spoken word poetry.

One observation I took away from that 2002 experience was there were a lot of teenage boys who felt deeper, got hurt by love experiences more, and were willing to share their feelings in front of others, than I ever met when I was a teenager.
 
Fast forward ten years, and I am watching a TED.com video of Sarah Kay.  I watch a lot of TED videos (and share a lot of them in this blog), so when I noticed the audience gave Sarah Kay two standing ovations in less than 20 minutes, I knew it was yet another great video to share that should be shared.

The opening poem, If I had a Daughter, is specular in and of itself (and is now a book simply titled – B).  What is extraordinary in my opinion is how Sarah has developed a teaching technique that transforms the angst of youth changes the lives of young people.  Her teaching technique follows one of my development mottos:  Take the drama out of the trauma and watch the spirit soar.

Thank you Sarah for your great work.  Andrea T. Goeglein, PhD
DrSuccess@ServingSuccess.com