The Review

Issue date: 3/18/08 Section: Mosaic

Media Credit: Shanelle Gabriel Shanelle Gabriel was one of three professional slam poets to perform at the university on Wednesday night.

Three professional poets proved alliteration isn't out of style during Poetic Paradise, an event cosponsored by the Hispanic Organization of Latin Americans and the Student Center Programs Advisory Board Wednesday night at Trabant University Center.

Spoken-word poets Shanelle Gabriel, Carlos Andrés Gómez and Mayda del Valle performed powerful pieces covering a range of topics including relationships, HIV, genocide and determination.

Poetry often conjures up memories of third-grade haikus and Emily Dickinson. However, spoken word deviates from this conventional concept - it's a conglomeration of poetry, performance art and soul.

Gabriel, Gómez and del Valle have all performed at the renowned Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City and have been featured on Season 6 of "Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam." However, despite the shared history, each poet touches on different topics.

Gabriel incorporates humor into her poetry, which delves into themes from self-love to life lessons.

"I've never been one to address political issues," Gabriel says. "I'm more concerned about people worried about their self-esteem, dealing with others and dealing with themselves. I want people to see our imperfections make us complete and accept our mistakes and our own way of thinking, not necessarily what everybody else tells us to think."

On the other end of the spectrum, Gómez, a former social worker and teacher, draws upon his experiences from his time in Philadelphia and New York City to infuse social messages within his poetry.

"A lot of really difficult things happened with the clients and people I was working with at the social work job," Gómez says. "I was working with adolescent prostitutes, teen heroin addicts, homeless veterans and people who were incarcerated. To me, art was the only antidote that I knew to all that destruction and violence that I saw."

The focus of del Valle's poetry ran the gamut from Latina stereotypes to her mother's mastery in the kitchen.

"I don't think I focus it on any one thing," del Valle says. "There are lots of things that make up Mayda. It's not just my culture, it's not just some racial category that I might fit into, it's not just my language, it's not just my ethnicity, it's not just my being a woman, it's not my being from Chicago - it's a whole 101 things."

Continued...

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