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‘Too Loud for Looseleaf’ Highlights Black Spoken Word Poetry - Diana DeSimine

9/27/2021

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Picture
Adjunct Writing Arts Professor Stephen Cobb performs at ‘Too Loud for Looseleaf,’ a spoken word poetry event which he worked hard to bring to campus. Photo by Bree Jacobs
​So when my students ask me
“Professor, can I use the word ‘ain’t’ in my essay?”
I remind them that they do not need permission to write the way they speak
—Stephen Cobb, “European Nooses in the Classroom”
After a night of thought-provoking and snap-worthy performances, the five poets – Orville the Poet, Just Mike the Poet, Jovan McKoy, Destiny Karizma, and Stephen Cobb – sat on the stage for a laidback Q&A.

​Stephen 
Cobb, an adjunct Writing Arts professor at Rowan University, took the mic to explain what this night meant to him:

“The idea for this started when I was in my Master’s class, and I was having trouble feeling like I was heard on the page. I was writing words that were falling on deaf ears. … So then, when it came time to do this, we did ‘Too Loud for Looseleaf,’ and we named it that because in our community, particularly Black people, we’re not going to be heard on the page.”

Make no mistake, Cobb fulfilled his mission. Too Loud for Looseleaf
 – co-sponsored by the Writing Arts Department, SJICR, the English department, and Diversity in Action Committee  –  was a night that shone a spotlight on Black voices, Black poetry, and the art of spoken word at Rowan University.

Cobb himself acted as an emcee and opened up the show. Sparing any introduction, he fired the audience right up with a poem lambasting the unfair idea of “the American Dream.” His two following poems critiqued the education system, its pricing, and its erasure of AAVE.
Picture
For Just Mike the Poet, poetry has been a path to healing. Photo by Bree Jacobs
Following Cobb was Just Mike the Poet, hailing from Philly. Just Mike found poetry after making an attempt on his life, and since then, he has used it to heal himself and heal others.

​“Poetry is purgatory to me, to be honest. I don’t get any gratification from it myself,” he described during the Q&A. “I’m really just a vessel for others, a light in other people’s darkness.” And provide light he did, with achingly romantic lines, such as,
Then if I should die first,
​I’mma ask God to bring me back as the rose bush in our front yard,

so she can still come home to flowers when life gets hard
Jovan McKoy, the night’s next performer, also comes from Philadelphia. During the Q&A, he discussed drawing inspiration from the rhythmic timings of stand-up comics such as Dave Chappelle and Richard Pryor, and it showed, loosening up the audience by cracking jokes as soon as he came on stage.

The subject matter of his poems varied widely, from asking fellow Black men to do better, to ranting about the soul-crushing stress of working a minimum wage job, to a comical and light-hearted love poem. Before that, however, he got serious with a moving poem titled “Three Days,” written from the perspective of the Tallahatchie River, which carried Emmett Till’s body after he was murdered. Each poem recited by McKoy was as unique, fresh, and engaging as the next through his powerful command of language.
​
Picture
Jovan McKoy was charismatic, surprising the audience with the varied topics his poems covered. Photo by Bree Jacobs
Picture
Destiny Karizma may be soft-spoken, but she is not afraid to share her secrets through poetry. Photo by Bree Jacobs
Destiny Karizma, nick-named the Lyrical Pro Black Unicorn, comes from Staten Island, but credits Camden as making her become a poet. Walking onto the stage, she appeared very shy – but nonetheless, she used spoken word poetry as a way to be open and vulnerable to an audience of strangers.  ​“Love is my theme for these pieces,” she spoke softly into the mic, “but, like… I fell in love, I’m pretty sure y’all fall in love, so we shouldn’t have any problems,” she giggled. The three poems she performed were vulnerable, confessional, and tender. Her poetry collection, A Clouded Mind, published only a week earlier, was sold at the event.
Picture
Orville the Poet spoke of hard-hitting truths, mixed with an uplifting theme of following your passion. Photo by Bree Jacobs
The last performer of the night was headliner Orville the Poet, traveling all the way from Washington, D.C. – during a horrible rainstorm, I might add. For him, poetry “definitely started as therapy.” Now, he shares poems to motivate and inspire others. “If you get anything from my time with you today,” he told the audience, “I hope you find out what your passion is – and many of you know what it is. … I hope you don’t get comfortable. I hope you get super miserable until you start doing that thing. … Share your heart through your art!”
​
Picture
Spoken word is Orville the Poet’s passion, if that wasn’t clear from the first poem he shared. The next two poems he recited centered around Black youth and class struggles that touched on his personal experience growing up in the city. The last poem he shared was dedicated to his mother, who encouraged him to get into poetry at a young age by exposing him to artists like Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen.
Spoken word is a powerful art form – and certainly, baring your soul on the stage requires a good deal of bravery.

Orville’s advice to those who dream about taking that step: “The more you you put into [your poetry], the more people will gravitate towards you being your authentic self.”​
​“When I’m up here on the stage and I’m spittin’, I’m doing this for me,” McKoy shared. ​​“I don’t care about nobody else, this is for my self-healing. You ever had that feeling where you just wanna be inside your house and scream ‘cause you had a rough day or a rough week? The stage is your place to scream. And ain’t nobody gonna judge – every stage that I’ve hit, no judgement. It’s a safe space. Who in the audience has the right to judge you on your story?”
​
Picture
​“Once you get on the stage, no one can tell you the future that it will hold,” said Cobb, ​​“but I guarantee you all the best things are from you taking that leap.”

​Cobb knows that better than anyone.

“Honestly,” he said after a pause, “this feeling is surreal. … We jumped through a lot of obstacles, relationships have changed – I went from Drew Kopp being my professor, to now I’m working with him on projects. … It’s just the beauty and the journey, and I appreciate you guys for being a part of it – I appreciate my poets for being here – our first Too Loud for Looseleaf has been a success, y’all!”

And while he worked so hard to make a spoken word night happen at Rowan, his mission isn’t over yet, already planning a spoken word workshop for students.


Too Loud for Looseleaf was recorded by Rowan Television Network, and you can watch the event here:
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  • Home
  • Programs
    • Creative Writing Minor
    • WA Major
    • Minors >
      • Publishing and Writing for the Public
      • New Media Minor
      • Technical & Professional Writing Minor
      • Writing Arts Minor
    • Certificates of Undergraduate Study >
      • CUGS in Creative Writing
      • CUGS in Publishing and Writing for the Public
      • CUGS in Technical and Professional Writing
      • CUGS in Writing Studies for Educators
      • CUGS in Professional Communication
      • CUGS in Writing for the Environment
    • 4+1 (B.A.+M.A.) Program
    • Degree in 3
    • Graduate Programs
  • Advising
  • WA Major
    • Writing Arts Journey
    • Required Courses >
      • General Education >
        • Science and Mathematics
        • Social and Behavioral Sciences
        • Literature, History, Humanities, and Language
      • Introduction to Writing Arts >
        • History & Materiality of Writing
        • Issues in Writing
        • Technologies & the Future of Writing
      • Methods Choice >
        • Communication Theory
        • How Writers Read
        • Tutoring Writing
      • Creative Choice >
        • Creative Writing I
        • Writing Children's Stories
      • The Writer's Mind
      • Writing, Research & Technology
      • Literacy Studies >
        • Situating Writing
        • Writing With Technologies
      • Senior Seminar: Methods of Analysis and Evaluation of Writing
      • Portfolio Seminar
      • Free Electives
    • Elements of Language >
      • American English Grammar
      • Editing for Publication
      • Introduction to Anthropological Linguistics
      • Linguistics
      • Rhetorics of Style
      • Semantics
    • Concentrations >
      • Creative Writing >
        • Creative Writing I
        • Creative Writing II
        • Film Scenario Writing
        • Fundamentals of Playwriting
        • Magazine Article Writing
        • Professions in Writing Arts
        • The Publishing Industry
        • Screenwriting I: Writing the Short
        • Screenwriting II: Writing the Feature
        • Tutoring Writing
        • Teaching the Writer's Workshop >
          • Publishing & Writing for the Public >
            • Applied Media Aesthetics: Sight, Sound and Story
            • Editing the Literary Journal
            • Environmental Writing & Rhetoric
            • Fiction to Film
            • Introduction to New Media
            • Media Law
            • Online Journalism I
            • Participatory Media
            • The Publishing Industry
            • Publication Layout & Design
            • Photojournalism
            • Professions in Writing Arts
            • Rhetorical Theory
            • Self Publishing
            • Writing for Popular Culture
            • Writing for the Workplace
            • Internship
            • Research Practicum
        • Writing Children's Stories
        • Writing Comedy
        • Writing Creative Nonfiction
        • Writing Fiction
        • Writing Genre Fiction
        • Writing Poetry
        • Writing the Young Adult Novel
        • Internship
        • Research Practicum
      • Technical & Professional Writing >
        • Developing Health and Scientific Literacy
        • Introduction to Technical Writing
        • Medical Writing and Rhetoric
        • Professions in Writing Arts
        • The Publishing Industry
        • Scientific Writing and Rhetoric
        • Tutoring Writing
        • Writing to Bear Witness
        • Writing for Nonprofits
        • Writing for the Workplace
        • Internship
        • Research Practicum
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      • HyFlex/Remote Learning
      • Canvas Support >
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      • Accessibility in Online Courses
      • Racial Equity Online
      • Supporting Developmental Writers Remotely
      • Building an Online Classroom Community
    • Acknowledgements
  • Blogs
    • Writer's Insider Blog >
      • Spring 2022 >
        • Writing Diverse Characters
      • Fall 2021
      • Spring 2021
      • Fall 2020
      • Spring 2020
      • Fall 2019
      • Spring 2019 >
        • An Interview with Devon James & Rachel Barton
        • Confession Travel Writer
        • Self-Publishing: A Change in Perspective
        • CCCA Career Fair: Having Your Future in Mind
        • Alumni Success: Entering the Working World
        • Behind the Scenes of Rowan's Hiring Process
        • Writing Comedy
      • Fall 2018 >
        • Singularity Press: Rowan's New Start Up
        • Writing Arts Club
        • How Can We Evaluate Creative Writing?
        • More Inclusive Events for Technical Writers
        • Guest Speaker Manuela Soares
        • Glassworks Reading
        • Spotlight: Taylor Henry, Recently Published Rowan Alum
      • Spring 2018 >
        • Publishing and Writing for the Public: A Reconstructed Concentration
        • What You Think You Know About Technical and Professional Writing is Wrong
        • The Toni Libro Medallion Award Winner: Myriah Stubee
        • An Interview with a Publisher
        • Excellence in Writing Arts Medallion Winner: Sara Skipp
        • The College of Communcation and Creative Arts 6th Annual Student Awards and Showcase Ceremony
        • Rowan Alum, Marissa Cohen, On Self Publishing and Advocacy
      • Fall 2017 >
        • Upcoming Classes in the Writing Arts Department
        • The Writer's Journey Blog by Earl Garcia
        • Rewriting The Department's Social Media Platforms
        • Rowan University Writing Arts Club Reinvents Mission
        • Glassworks Launches Issue Fifteen
        • For Futuristic Consideration: An Exploration of Careers in Writing
      • Spring 2017 >
        • Technical Communication: An Overview
        • A More Inclusive Future for Technical Writers
        • Easing the Tension: Breaking Down Technical and Professional Writing
        • Growing the Technical and Professional Writing Concentration
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      • Winter 2015
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    • 2022 Emerging Writers Scholarship
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    • Past Awards >
      • 2008 Hollybush Writing Competition
      • Write Rowan, Right Now! Contest
  • Student Groups
    • Writing Arts Club
    • Avant Literary Magazine
    • The Whit Newspaper
    • Her Campus Rowan
    • Odyssey at Rowan
    • Singularity Press
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  • ECCCA
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