A conversation during my internship the other day:
“Are you going to Living Writer’s Series today?” my supervisor asked.
“Compared to dead writers?” a fellow employee interjected.
It got a chuckle, but what the “fellow employee” didn’t understand was that Living Writer’s Series not only discusses, well, living writers, it also introduces these living writers to the class.
Students are introduced to published and, what some would say, even successful writers; they are introduced to alumni, published professors and sometimes even their very own classmates.
This Wednesday, I had the
pleasure of sitting in on Living Writer’s Series where Phillip Elliott performed his poetry. For those of you who don’t know, Phillip Elliott is a fellow Oswego State student; specifically he is a senior English and Creative Writing major.
Talking to an auditorium of students didn’t intimidate young Elliott at all.
“I have walked up to at least 150 students citing my poetry or serenading them with song.”
Elliott, however, didn’t think that he would ever be up in front of this specific class until he had seen the world. However unworldly he might think he is, he did nothing to disappoint the audience.
Elliott brought with him poems, slam poetry and song, each time ending with an eruption of applause from the audience.
For his first piece, Elliott chose to start with “Boom,” which he stated was his most explosive poem. He then went on to use a familiar line from Lionel Richie’s “Hello.”
“I haven’t become that successful to be that creepy,” Elliott said of Richie’s song.
Elliott brought with him a sense of humor, but a sense of something deeper also came easily across in his words.
“I have a very good memory for bad memories,” he cited from his poem “Boom.”
Elliott says he keeps a journal and tries to write every day. He has filled up countless numbers of journals with his poems and rhymes. For Elliott, his inspiration seems to come from his every day sightings and hearings.
For one of his poems, Elliott heard the phrase “vas deferens” and kept repeating it to himself until it reminded him of “vast difference,” from which he made a poem. For another, Elliott saw a young woman “whip her hair back and forth” as young Willow Smith puts it, and created a poem about that.
Poems, however, are not the only specialty of Elliott’s. During his brief time of fame, Elliot performed two songs with folksinger and fellow Oswego State student, Sam Katz. Her singing and his rapping, with two guitarists in the background, made for an arousal of feelings where one wasn’t sure if they should succumb to the soothing sounds of Sam Katz voice, or bob along to Elliott’s up-tempo beats.
Whichever one chose, it left the audience member wanting more.
Elliott was prepared to give the audience more, as that is one of his rules: Don’t show up if you’re not prepared. Elliott, who has been rapping for almost six years now, also told the audience that they couldn’t connect to people if they don’t look at them.
Full of advice, rhythm and funk, Elliott introduced Living Writer’s Series to a new side of poetry.
Photos by Vala Kjarval