{"id":806,"date":"2021-04-20T12:56:27","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T12:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projects.ccu.press\/edwardslive\/?p=806"},"modified":"2021-10-18T05:34:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T05:34:23","slug":"a-prize-winning-poetic-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.ccu.press\/edwardslive\/a-prize-winning-poetic-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"A Prize-Winning Poetic Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We don\u2019t always think of poetry as a performance art. Though it\u2019s fundamentally designed to be spoken, poetry is frequently considered to be a solitary pursuit, with the creator focused inward. CCU senior Aliza Saper, physical theater major and winner of the Spring 2021 Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Contest<\/a> with her work \u201cTo Eat and Be Eaten,\u201d brings the dynamic nature of poetry back to its rightful place: front and center stage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aliza Saper reading her piece, To Eat and Be Eaten<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saper\u2019s winning\nwork is a reflection on the nature of space, the passage of time, and a\npermeating anxiety that she believes afflicts everyone in a Covid-19 world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is my Covid life,\u201d Saper said of her winning work, which was judged by poet Abraham Smith<\/a>. \u201cI think we all have a version of this right now. The problems that we\u2019re facing, the struggles that we\u2019re having, are all compounded together.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saper edited and submitted the poem from her childhood bedroom, the same place she inhabited the entire pandemic. The focus on space in the poem blends with a chronic worry that Saper fears is an unavoidable symptom of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt really has been a time of, \u2018If it\u2019s not this thing that\u2019s eating at me, then it\u2019s this thing,\u2019\u201d said Saper. \u201cAnd then it almost feels abnormal to be at peace and not be worrying — we have become so used to that little eating-away-at-you feeling that something\u2019s wrong, something bad is going to happen.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saper has certainly gained notoriety for her verse in her final semester at CCU; in addition to her Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Contest honor, Saper also won the inaugural commencement poetry contest, open to all pending graduates of the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration and the Thomas W. Edwards and Robin Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts, established for the combined ceremony for students of the two colleges. Saper’s winning work, “Inches,” will be presented at commencement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Oestreich, chair and professor of the Department of English, said Saper’s approach transcends mere reflection on a given subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What I love about her work, and this commencement poem specifically, is how she gets beyond the sentimentalized, conventional wisdom of her topic to the truth with a capital ‘T,'”said Oestreich. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theater has always\nbeen the center of Saper\u2019s artistic life, with poetry serving as a side hobby. Her\ndiscovery of poetry as performance occurred during a gap year she took after\nattending Illinois Wesleyan University for one year. At home in Denver and\nfeeling a bit pigeonholed, Saper dared herself to attend the weekly poetry slam\nat the Mercury Caf\u00e9. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People liked my words, and I was shocked.<\/p>

<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI went, and it\nwas one of those magical moments in life when I was in the right place at the\nright time,\u201d said Saper. \u201cI had written poetry before — that wasn\u2019t new — but\nperforming it was. People liked my words, and I was shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saper enrolled in CCU\u2019s physical theater program<\/a> the following year, and during that time she founded Tongues in Common, a monthly poetry open mic night at Yoga in Common in Myrtle Beach. Established in February 2019, the student-run program continues today as an outlet for artistic performance, growth, and connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Contest was Saper\u2019s first experience submitting her work, and she encourages other students to do the same, emphasizing the concept of pulling out work that\u2019s already been produced and polishing it up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiving life to\nold work is sometimes more accessible and more fulfilling that even producing\nsomething new,\u201d said Saper. \u201cThat idea is really well taught to the physical\ntheater majors: work never dies. I think we\u2019re so used to having our work die.\nWe get an assignment to make this project, and we organize it, and we show it\nin class, and we get a grade on it, and it evaporates after that. But that\u2019s\nalways raw material. Once you make something, it\u2019s raw material.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saper credits Jessica Richardson<\/a>, associate professor of creative writing<\/a> in the Department of English<\/a>, with guiding her, an artist who typically wrote poetry for the ear, toward learning how to edit for the eye. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI write poetry for performance, so I never thought about the importance of details such as punctuation and line placement,\u201d said Saper. \u201cIt was a fascinating experience.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We don\u2019t always think of poetry as a performance art. Though it\u2019s fundamentally designed to be spoken, poetry is frequently considered to be a solitary pursuit, with the creator focused inward. CCU senior Aliza Saper, physical theater major and winner of the Spring 2021 Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Contest with her work \u201cTo Eat and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,1],"tags":[106,108,107,74],"class_list":["post-806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-corner-student-voices","category-student-voices","tag-creative-writing","tag-paul-rice-poetry-broadside-contest","tag-physical-theater","tag-poetry"],"yoast_head":"\nA Prize-Winning Poetic Performance - Edwards Live<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/projects.ccu.press\/edwardslive\/a-prize-winning-poetic-performance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Prize-Winning Poetic Performance - Edwards Live\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We don\u2019t always think of poetry as a performance art. 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