Evie Shockley Reading

Last Thursday I went to the Evie Shockley poetry reading and her passion while she read her poems was awesome. All of the poems she read were from her book “The New Black” and I liked hearing about where some of her inspiration came from. She read 12 individual poems and then for her final reading she read the set of poems that ends her book. One of the poems that stuck with me was “Celestial” which she used to talk about Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe, who she said were two of her heroes. She said once she learned that they were actually friends, she knew she had to write a poem about them. In the poem she used a lot of one word descriptions to talk about each of them individually and then also used simple words to talk about them together. It really stuck with me--it was easy to understand and got a great point across. I actually might try this technique for one of my poems that I’m editing for my final revision. I also thought it was cool the way she uses jokes in her poems to lighten up the very serious topic that she is usually discussing. The subtle jokes and sarcasm I thought made her poems so much more catching and interesting. I really enjoyed hearing her read and I definitely plan on looking into some more of her poetry. She has a very distinct style and it really captured my attention.