Poetry was set in motion this past Friday at the Binghamton University Black Student Union headquarters, located in Old University Union. The organization hosted a poetry jam as its Black History Month closing event.
The jam featured two renowned poets and performers, Nicole Shante and Moise Morancy, both from Brooklyn, New York. Shante and Morancy energized their poetry by acting out conversations and incorporating movement into their performances.
Shante performed a “choreopoem,” which is a piece combining dance and poetry. She said she chooses to include dance in her performances because she believes it is another form of storytelling.
“I started dancing at 12 years old,” Shante said. “It was my first understanding of storytelling.”
Shante’s poems are deeply personal, stitched together with brutally honest details about everything from sex, to depression, to talks with her grandmother.
In one poem, she celebrated her body, lifting her arms and swaying her hips to accompany her declarations of self-love. However, further into her act, she stood still, hugging her arms protectively across her chest as she recalled instances of fear from the struggle of having a woman’s body in a world where it is “supposed to be given to everyone but [herself].”
Shante believes that her poetry is not complete without movement involved.
“A poem is a living and breathing thing,” Shante said. “It doesn’t just exist on paper, but in my mouth and my body.”
Rosieva Ashong-Katai, a senior majoring in sociology, agreed that Shante’s poetry was enhanced by the elements of dance.
“I love the way her body mimics her words,” Ashong-Katai said. “It was surreal to watch her.”
After a long round of applause for Shante, Morancy took to the stage as the second act of the night to give his own version of performance art.
In addition to writing, Morancy is a professional actor, and has made appearances on TV shows such as “The Affair” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Just as Shante incorporates her dancing background into her work, Morancy uses his skills as an actor to create engaging and emotionally charged narrative pieces that include conversations between multiple characters, all played by himself.
Morancy interacts with the audience in his pieces, giving them instructions on when and what to yell out to him in the middle of his poems. A chorus of “Thanks Obama!” filled the room during his piece titled “Dear President Obama,” which he was inspired to write when a professor of his constantly criticized the former president.
Morancy’s pieces are passionate and honest. In his opening piece, “My Generation,” he focused on the impact he and his peers have had on culture, politics and social media. In some pieces, Morancy includes dialogue between two characters, and alternates between narrating the story and changing into a character by spinning on his heel. Each new character was complete with a different voice, personality and mannerism.
On multiple occasions, Morancy’s performance brought up the Black Lives Matter movement, both directly and by talking about the issue of racism and corruption among police forces. Before a piece titled “Know Your Rights,” Morancy recalled times when he himself had been assaulted by police officers and shared that he wanted to impact the audience with his performance.
“I don’t write for myself, I do it for the cause,” Morancy said. “I want the people [in the audience] to take something with them when they leave.”