Caged Bird
Let me get on thing straight here: I am completely biased. If there is an out-of-control little league dad when it comes to poetry competitions, that would be me. My son’s name is “Seamus” in part because my dad’s name is James and his mom is Irish. James in Gaelic is “Seamus” so it seemed a fair compromise. But in the back of my head I also had Seamus Heaney, the Irish poet who was announced the 1995 noble prize winner in literature just months before my Seamus was born in April of 1996.
My Seamus at 15 is a starting outside linebacker, a serious tennis player, and a young man I am proud to call son. He also has an interest in poetry and public speaking and even politics. He won his school’s spoken poetry contest qualifying him for the state-wide semi final today. He was one of 21 contestants in the Greater Boston region.
When we arrived, I was shocked to realize that he was one of only two boys in the contest. And both boys attend all-boys schools, meaning girls had made a clean sweep of coed schools in the city. How could that be? I asked myself.
The two hours of students speaking poems was magical. Topics of race and gender and love and loss moved me greatly.
And then it was time for the all female panel of judges, save one guy, to decide who would go on. I wasn’t really that nervous because of how well Seamus had done. But names were read and he was not among those selected.
My boy was robbed! was my first thought. I even wondered out loud whether being a white male contestant had somehow counted against him with the largely female and African-American contestants and judges. But then I came to my senses (in part thanks to a tongue thrashing by 17 year-old daughter in the car). Yes, more boys should have been there. But historically speaking white male poets don’t really need an affirmative action program.
During Seamus’s recitation of “Calling Him Back From a Layoff,” I noticed an older African-American man in the front nodding his head and muttering affirmations like he was in some kind of gospel revival. I asked Seamus afterwards whether the feedback had bothered him and he smiled. “Absolutely not,” he said. “I don’t care what the judges say I was here to reach the hearts and minds of the audience.”
And that he did. Perhaps he does have a future in politics after all.
Calling Him Back From Layoff
John Anderson, try flippin it. Imagine affirmative action for black men at the opera.
I’m not a great fan of affirmative action. I do think that society will automatically rule it out as a remedy when it comes to men, which I believe is wrong. That’s not to say that it would be appropriate for men even in cases where it would be appropriate for women, but it should be assessed on its merits and not discarded out of hand. I’m not sure how your example would work without reducing the quality of the opera. I suppose the opera can have a B class discounted performance like a music school/training performance where they would… Read more »
Harsh words, Chad. Every person, even someone speaking from a somewhat uneducated position of white male entitlement, deserves a chance to learn and grow. Besides to me Tom Matlack certainly seems to have a lot of goodness in him.
A sweet article, but the title seems irresponsible and out to grab eyeballs. As soon as women and people of colour start to occupy and excel in a particular field, affirmative action for men and other privileged groups gets whipped out quicker than a gun in the wild west. Remember part of the reason there are more girls then boys writing and reading poetry is because it was termed ‘sissy’ by our patriarchal society.Your 17 year old daughter was absolutely right, of course there’s no historical discrimination here and it’s a bit annoying to hear the slightly, subtly racist ruminations… Read more »
Women lost opportunities because society believed that it didn’t fit their gender construct, fix it with affirmative action. Men and boys lost opportunities because society believed that it didn’t fit their gender construct, but the one way it absolutely can’t be redressed is through affirmative action. Why do progressives seem to think that affirmative action needs to be automatically ruled out as a solution when it comes to assisting males achieve parity in society especially when simultaneously admitting that it was the gender construct that created the disparity?
Julie. I’m in Michigan. What’s behind me in my avatar is my front yard. I’m informed that Texas has as many as one natural lake, the rest of your standing water being artificially confined. My nephew, Graham Schmidt, produces Russian plays. I was there about a year ago for a contemporary production. Something about Rude Mechanics for the venue, iirc. The seats were obsolete writng desks somebody had gotten from the university, back when the average undergrad went about 140. All kind of fun. My sis, Graham’s mom, is in Spring, and my daughter is in Bedford. Ive told Graham… Read more »
He and I have like 145 facebook friends in common. How funny! I love moments like this! We don’t have that many lakes that’s true, but we do have rivers! My mother’s family grew up in Traverse City. Lots of nice memories of Michigan.
Then you’ll probably know TC got almost two feet of snow over the weekend.
My sister in law lives there, along with one of Graham’s aunts. We go there frequently. They have honest winters.
We had about two days of winter this year! And we’ll have about 60 days of 100 degree weather. Maybe I should come up and visit the lakes in July!
I dunno. Current events as poetry is a cheap tactic. How can a judge be against, say, an impassioned exposition on civil rights, even if the poetry is lame?
Referring to current events is different, if you’re making a point, but the poetry should be poetry.
The older African American got it. Should have been a datum for the judging.
Saith a guy–me–who considers Kipling as The Master.
Julie. Plug for Breaking String Theater.
Yes! Are you in Austin? Do you know folks here? If you are in town you know we have to meet 😉
Right, here in Austin, we have MAD amounts of male poets and a huge poetry slam culture. Don’t know if that extends all the way into middle and high school, but I see loads of male poets, singer songwriters, dancers, and sculpters in the ATX. Might be a high school thing? Where girls are praised for being arty and some boys aren’t?
Then again, back in the 80’s in Athens GA I had lots of male poets on our literary magazine. Dunno, I’ve always been surrounded by men in the arts.
First thought is that you are using a very small sample (one event) to generalize about the state of the literary world. My second thought is that if it is true that boys are underrepresented, as they are in, for example, ballet, it might have to do with a bias about the arts not being viable careers (which, as someone working in the arts I can say has a lot of truth to it). I suspect that as a culture we give girls more leeway to pursue art for arts sake, a throw back to the era when a woman… Read more »
I’d say that depends on the social class the kids are in too. And the region of the country. Sometimes I read posts here on GMP about sex or even this and I realize my upbringing must have been 180 from most folks. Boys and girls dated easily, there wasn’t this whole weird girls only pine for alpha thing, men talked about feelings but also did sports, male poets and so forth.
“Yes, more boys should have been there. But historically speaking white male poets don’t really need an affirmative action program.”
You and your son aren’t living in history; you’re living in the present where boys are very underrepresented in literary events. You’re making excuses for cultural forces that are harming your son. Not very courageous.
I think creating an outreach program for men and poetry is something worth looking into…….creating an affirmative action program, though, would be going too far. Two totally different things.
I like the idea of outreach. I don’t particularly favor affirmative action programs, but I think that one acceptable type could be competitions exclusively for boys, sort of like having different athletic teams for boys and girls. It ensures that the boys are able to participate in the short term. It can be phased out as more boys develop the language skills to compete.
Why would anyone be bothered by an “older African-American man in the front nodding his head and muttering affirmations like he was in some kind of gospel revival”? You just admitted it was affirmative. Affirmative action would be analyzing rap and spoken word with the same seriousness as other poetry and letting some of those under-recognized professionals receive honorary degrees to teach such word-craft… but you’ve black folks like Snoop, who’ve securely became middle class, professional and will still be denied social respect because of the means to their end… Like Columbus got here without slaughtering Arawak Indians… Or the… Read more »
The question was whether having a loud audience broke his rhythm while speaking, which it probably would have mine.
You’re not very familiar with call-and-response tradition, I imagine?
It’s tradition for the audience to respond, Tom. I’d buy you a ticket to Chicago to attend a slam at The Green Mill, where slam’s founder, Marc Smith, still runs his reading, just to watch your head explode.
When it comes to spoken word competitions, audience reaction is encouraged. I’d say it’s one of the cornerstones of modern poetry competitions/slams. To be honest, you’re off hand inclusion of a seemingly racist statement, “I noticed an older AFRICAN-AMERICAN man in the front nodding his head and muttering affirmations like he was in some kind of GOSPEL REVIVAL.” in a post that introduces itself as having an issue with poetry seeming to be minority driven, doesn’t help your post at all. I’m white and if I like a line of poetry, I’ll let the poet know. You’re obviously new to… Read more »
Word.
First an “all female panel of judges, save one guy,” is not an all female panel of judges. Secondly how did we go from “older African-American man in the front nodding his head and muttering affirmations” to a “loud” audience member? Clearly this was your first slam if not you would have know that spoken word is not your grandmothers poetry reading, which begs the question if this was your first one perhaps you might have considered being open to the possibility that whatever discomfort you felt had more to do with you being a spoken word newbie and less… Read more »
Well I listened to one of the poems and I heard a 17 year old kid try to relate to an adult who has his whole life on the line that he can have his job back. It’s not realistic or relatable. It’s like a Mitt Romney anecdote. When I was 17 I got to call this grown man and tell him he can feed his family. It’s plastic. I don’t know what other poems were read but this poem is the Mitt Romney of poems. I hope he keeps going to more slams so he can learn how to… Read more »
Wow, Seamus was great Tom! And as someone who fainted (yes, literally, keeled over and hit the ground with the thud) the first time I did a Poetry reading, I can vouch for the fact it’s not easy.
It’s great to see the ease at which kids can take on a variety of roles these days, and let the exploration of many different things define them. Thanks for sharing the videos.
Check out Anis Mojgani, if you haven’t already. Some of the best poetry I’ve heard/read since I read Leaves of Grass and Ai Qing in High School (gulp… ten years ago…)