Spoken Word Poetry
Gabriella Garcia Medina, Spoken word poet
To hear such powerful words in such a strong voice come from the tiny body was absolutely amazing. Today, I had the pleasure of being part of the audience to which Gabriela Garcia Medina delivered several of her lengthy, yet heartfelt poems. When you first see Gabriela, you would never think that inside the small body lies such power and self-confidence. She captivates her audience, makes them laugh, cry and think from deep within themselves and in the end leaves them wanting to hear more of what she has to say. Gabriela gives you a bit of background before reciting any poems so that you can understand a bit more about who she is and her point of view while listening to the poem she is reciting. According to Gabriella, her family left Cuba in 1989 and moved to London. At the age of ten and on one of her first field trips, to a soup kitchen, Gabriela realized that there were people who didn’t have food or homes. This brought her to tears and the only way she was able to soothe her soul and ease the tears was to express her feelings in the form of poetry. Her family embraced the creative gift and encouraged her to keep writing. This was the start of the young woman’s career and a chance to let begin touching the lives of others through her words. Gabriela has two different ways in which she writes her poetry. One is a structured format in which she is hired by an organization given a theme, time and money. Though Gabriela has the freedom to write the poem in her own creative way, the theme and idea behind it must follow the guideline that the company which she was hired by provided. The other way Gabriela comes up with her ideas for poems are through her day-to-day interactions with others. According to Gabriela, every time she comes in contact with a person she knows that it’s a potential poem. Things that most people consider normal daily activities, Gabriela turns into poetry. Whether it is a bad day or a trip to
To hear such powerful words in such a strong voice come from the tiny body was absolutely amazing. Today, I had the pleasure of being part of the audience to which Gabriela Garcia Medina delivered several of her lengthy, yet heartfelt poems. When you first see Gabriela, you would never think that inside the small body lies such power and self-confidence. She captivates her audience, makes them laugh, cry and think from deep within themselves and in the end leaves them wanting to hear more of what she has to say. Gabriela gives you a bit of background before reciting any poems so that you can understand a bit more about who she is and her point of view while listening to the poem she is reciting. According to Gabriella, her family left Cuba in 1989 and moved to London. At the age of ten and on one of her first field trips, to a soup kitchen, Gabriela realized that there were people who didn’t have food or homes. This brought her to tears and the only way she was able to soothe her soul and ease the tears was to express her feelings in the form of poetry. Her family embraced the creative gift and encouraged her to keep writing. This was the start of the young woman’s career and a chance to let begin touching the lives of others through her words. Gabriela has two different ways in which she writes her poetry. One is a structured format in which she is hired by an organization given a theme, time and money. Though Gabriela has the freedom to write the poem in her own creative way, the theme and idea behind it must follow the guideline that the company which she was hired by provided. The other way Gabriela comes up with her ideas for poems are through her day-to-day interactions with others. According to Gabriela, every time she comes in contact with a person she knows that it’s a potential poem. Things that most people consider normal daily activities, Gabriela turns into poetry. Whether it is a bad day or a trip to