Penn Slam-Poet Joshua Bennett: "On a First-Name Basis With the Wind"

May 19, 2009

If you've ever been curious about what Amy Gutmann means when she says that Penn students have the potential to "improve the world in bolder, more unpredictable ways", then listen (up!) to this.

Penn junior and "slam champ" Joshua Bennett performed live last week in the East Room of the White House -- and received a standing ovation from President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and about 200 guests.

It was the first-ever White House "Poetry Jam" -- an evening of poetry, music, and spoken word that included legendary actor James Earl Jones (who read passages of Othello), writers Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, jazz pianist Eric Lewis, and spoken word performer Mayda Del Valle.

As part of her introductory remarks, Michelle Obama said of democracy, "It has room for lots of voices, which sometimes take us out of our comfort zones, but that's what makes it so meaningful."

"We're here to celebrate the power of words and music," President Obama told the guests, "to help us appreciate beauty, but also to understand pain, to inspire us to action, and to spur us on when we start to lose hope."

"The hope," according to the White House blog, "is that this evening's gathering helps ensure that all voices are heard, particularly voices that are often not heard."

As one of those voices, Joshua rose to the occasion with a particularly fitting piece: "Tamara's Opus," an original poem about his own struggle to communicate with his deaf sister.

watch Tamara's Opus

Joshua, a financial aid recipient who majors in Africana Studies and English at Penn, has recently gained national acclaim as a veteran of HBO's Brave New Voices, a national teen poetry competition [what's a poetry slam?]. Representing "Team Philadelphia," Joshua and two fellow slammers from Penn -- Alysia Harris (a Weiss Scholarship student) and Aysha El Shamayleh -- were the 2007 champs of Brave New Voices.

watch their slams: Carbon Copy | That Girl | Cupid in a Cold War

"I want to leave an impression on people that Josh did it right," Joshua says. "That's the legacy that I'm concerned with: How will people remember you when you're gone?"

As he enters his senior year at Penn, it seems Joshua has already discovered part of the answer to that question. From his spoken-word poem, "Carbon Copy":

when I pick up a pen allowing my words to rocket through the air like I was on a first name basis with the wind and so long as it's cool with my father I'll continue to believe that the lights I write to every night are coming from within him the fireflies on his insides ...

 

 

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