Clearly restate the purpose and research question of your study I was originally going to research the connection between Portland and poetry but my research changed a couple weeks into the study to researching differences between the Olympia Slam scene and Portland Slam. Classify the research methods employed in your research and report their effectiveness I attended weekly readings in Olympia or Portland – each time keeping an eye out…
Author: Destiny
Saturday I went to Olympia’s Grand Slam featuring Tara Hardy, the founder of the only LGBTQ School in the world -Bent Writing Institute in Seattle, WA. The Olympia Grand Slam was very different from the Portland Grand Slam. It was held at Olympia’s Family Theater on 4th between Cherry St. NE and Chestnut St. SE. The venue was significantly smaller than the one in Portland and the random judges who were…
This last week I was planning on performing in Portland for the first time but I was unable to make it down to Portland. I was also planning on performing in Olympia this Thursday but there isn’t an open mic because the Olympia Grand Slam is this Saturday. Since this week didn’t work out, I am planning on performing on Sunday in Portland if everything goes as planned. In a…
This week I finished reading Word Warriors and attended the Portland Poetry Slam. Andrea Gibson is one of my favorite spoken word artists and while reading Word Warriors I learned that she first took the stage at the age of 24 – and this inspired me to not think it’s “too late” for me to immerse myself in the scene. I always have a fear that I am starting too…
“…Words have the terrible power to dehumanize and destroy, but they also have the tremendous power to heal and rebuild that which has been destroyed.” -Leah Harris I was originally supposed to focus on reading Portland in Three Centuries for this week but once I picked up Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution, I could not set it down. From pigeons to politics, this book has…
Sunday April 12, 2015 I woke up disoriented. I had not slept very much and realized I forgot to book my hotel in Portland for that night. I frantically searched the hotel website that I was planning on staying at but they don’t do booking online for same-day reservations. I called to ask if they had any availability and they ended up being completely booked. I searched online for other hotels/motels/b&b’s/etc. but none of them ended up working out. I was disappointed that of all things I could forget to do, it was book a hotel, but I also was thankful that Olympia to Portland is only about a 2-hour drive. That’s when I decided I would just drive back to Olympia that night.
Still a bit disoriented, I grabbed my backpack and headed out. While I was on the freeway I couldn’t help but feel a great sense of joy. Sure, I wasn’t going to Ireland, but this was the first road trip I had ever taken alone… And that was a good feeling (several days later I find out that the plane I was supposed to be on to go to Ireland had an emergency landing in New York do to an engine failing). After arriving in Portland I quickly became irritated because there are so many one-way streets and so many stoplights in a row you can’t turn left at to get to the street you need! I finally said f it and decided to spend $10 to park at a lot for only 2 hours. I grabbed my cruiser and skated towards Powell’s City of Books. I stopped at a bench to people-watch and look at the architecture around me but I got bored pretty quickly because there weren’t very many people in that area. I looked around Powell’s for about an hour and a half and purchased a new wallet, 2 pairs of socks, and 3 amazing books that have nothing to do with my field study. I skated back to my car (about 10 blocks) and headed to where the Portland Poetry Slam Finals were being held.
I missed the turn for the street I was supposed to be on but luckily I was able to find it just fine, an hour and a half early. I realized I didn’t have any cash on me so I went to Voodoo Doughnuts to use their ATM but the line was out the door quite a bit, so I searched credit union ATM’s nearby so I didn’t have to pay the fee and found one a few blocks away. I get there but they have a sign saying they moved 5 blocks away… So I get there and they’re closed. I had to take a moment to breathe because at this point I was frustrated at just about everything – mostly because I had not eaten anything that day and it was about 5:30pm by that point. I ended up going to a 76 gas station, which was only a block away from where I originally was when I realized I didn’t have any cash. I got the cash, went back towards the venue, and sat in my car listening to Globelamp while I wrote down observations about my surroundings.
Finally to the Portland Slam Finals!!! It was strange being in a new city completely 
alone. After paying, a woman drew on everyone’s hand either in blue or black ink to determine potential judges… If you knew a poet personally, you got written on in black, if you didn’t you got blue like I did. I sat alone in the 2nd row corner while a stained glass white jesus stared me down. The host went up to the stage to explain a little about slam poetry and to thank people for helping put this night together. They got in trouble by the fire marshal at their last venue so 
they did not have a set place until about 2 weeks before the event. I went to a Portland Slam event in the Fall of 2014 so I recognized a few of the performers and audience members. The host, Jill Greenseth, did not perform while I was there during the Fall trip but they had made it to the Slam Finals and were more amazing than I even thought possible. They are also one of the finalists who are going to Nationals. Below are recordings of their pieces in order of what round they were performed.
Another one of my favorite poets from the Portland Slam Finals is named Doc Luben. In Fall 2014 Kirstie Opel interviewed him before the show. This was a whole new level of poems and it was incredible being able to be apart of the audience. He is also a finalist going to Nationals and below are 3 of his pieces in order of what round he performed them.
I recorded every poet and kept track of all the scores. A poet/musician named Jared Paul was the featured poet of that night and opened up the night (fast-forward 1 week and he was at Evergreen doing a workshop about slam poetry that I almost went to when I didn’t even realize that was the same guy). There were 3 rounds – the first 2 rounds had 9 poets and the last round had 6 – from there a decision had come based off the total scores of all 3 rounds of 4 people who are going to represent Portland at the National Poetry Slam held in August in Oakland, California.
Attending the slam was great inspiration for my writing. I spent the rest of week 3 reading Fugitives & Refugees, going to the Capitol Forest, and writing. Fugitives & Refugees was a good choice for this weeks reading because it had various suggestions of places in Portland to visit while also giving a little bit of history and even some directions. I took notes on places that caught my eye from cafes to haunted locations. I have decided to visit Forest Park – the biggest park in Portland that has over 60 miles of trails and connects to 5 other parks and wildlife sanctuaries (page 116).
creek watercolor
I decided to take trips to the Capitol Forest in Olympia because I love forests and because it is a great place to get writing done. I also decided to work with watercolors for this weeks sketch. I jumped a fence off the trail that led me down to the creek. It was so peaceful and was actually about 70 degrees that day. It’s certainly not the best watercolor in the world but I am still learning how to work with watercolors and I have never been great at drawing.
I have written 3 poems this week but am planning on editing them to make me a bit more comfortable having other people read… But here is the first little bit of one:
I sit amongst pine needles
And broken glass
On the empty staircase
Between madness and sanity
An ant circles around dead leaves
And I wonder if god
Looks at me with the same curiosity
“There are in our existence spots of time,
That with distinct pre-eminence retain
A renovating virtue, whence, depressed
By false opinion and contentious thought,
Or aught of heavier or more deadly weight,
In trivial occupations, and the round
Of ordinary intercourse, our minds
Are nourished and invisibly repaired;
A virtue, by which pleasure is enhanced,
That penetrates, enables us to mount,
When high, more high, and lifts us up when fallen”
– William Wordsworth, The Prelude
I think I was most captivated by chapter 5, The Country and the City, while reading the second half of The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton. In this section de Botton references William Wordsworth quite often while exploring the psychological effects nature has on humans. I am profoundly drawn to nature and always feel mentally renewed after spending time in nature – whether it’s the forest, the beach, or just sitting outside on some stairs. One of the reasons Washington state caught my attention is because of the vast amount of trees and the amount of rain the PNW receives. I am originally from a small, hot city in California where all the grass and trees are dying and the only experience of seeing a beautiful, green landscape is maybe during spring (if there’s been enough rain) or if you travel 2 cities away to go to a “famous” Vineyard. Green happens to be my favorite color and I never cease to be in awe at how many lush green trees are around just The Evergreen State College. I find myself walking around campus (generally away from red square) thinking about how much I love the college I go to and how lucky I am to practically live and study in a forest. I am always grateful for any drop of rain that we get because I know the trees and plants thrive because of it. I know that even if I am a little bummed that I will be thankful for the rain in the future. It has also given me a deeper appreciation of the sun – Now on sunny days I am grateful whereas in California I became resentful of the sun because it just meant another hot day searching for shade.
California has been in a drought for years and it’s gotten to the point where the lake park in my hometown has completely dried up. When I visited in September of 2014, I was able to walk to the center of the lake – which had been full of life since before I was born. This experience was mind-boggling… I couldn’t believe that the place I broke my foot when I was 4, the place I accidentally threw my fishing pole in when I was 7, the place I had gone swimming every summer, and the place I went to experience a little piece of nature had practically vanished. I think the depth of appreciation I have for nature has stemmed from growing up in a less than beautiful city that rarely gets any rain. Perhaps in its own way, it is beautiful… Because everything has beauty to it, it just has somewhat of a dreary feel to it because everything around you is dying because it can’t get the proper care.
There is no way I would ever be able to live in the city I grew up in again, especially after living in the PNW for a little over 3 years now. Being farther from the ocean has been a tough transition, but being surrounded by forests has been a good compromise.
“These trees gave off an impression of astonishing health and exuberance. They seemed not to care that the world was old and often sad… These trees provided a ledge against which I could rest m thoughts; they protected me from the eddies of anxiety and, in a small way that afternoon, contributed a reason to be alive” (152).
Whenever I feel myself becoming ungrounded or overwhelmed, I realize it’s when I haven’t explored the forest or been to the ocean in a while. I often feel this longing to become one with nature and as essential as water is for life, nature is for (my) psychological well-being. It certainly doesn’t mean it fixes everything but I find it helpful to take a day, or even just a few hours, to ditch electronics for the most part and just absorb what this world has created without much impact of humans. I feel more balanced and grounded after. A sense of peace and gratitude consumes my body and any distressing thoughts or emotions that proceeded. I am looking forward to finding spots in Portland that can bring a similar feeling.
“Journeys are the midwives of thought…Thinking improves when parts of the mind are given other tasks – charged with listening to music, for example, or following a line of trees.”
Alain de Botton articulates in detail a great deal of thoughts that have already crossed my mind in his book The Art of Travel. I often find myself daydreaming in class, while driving, while walking, while reading, etc. This can create circumstances that become a learning experience, but it can also cause me to overlook potential knowledge right in front of me. I am fortunate enough to live in a time where a good majority of questions that have derived from daydreaming or “spacing out” can be searched and reasonably answered by searching Google. It is no surprise that “thinking improves when parts of the mind are given other tasks” because you’re given new material to draw from. You’re stimulating your senses. I have found myself walking/ driving/ skating past an apartment building and I start thinking about things like whether or not it’s a good location, if it’s a safe location, if I could afford to live there, and even if I know it’s out of my price range and even if I am not in need of a place to live, I will look up the complex online… I look at photos of the inside, what floorplans are available… Which leads me to other thoughts like whether or not I think I would enjoy living with that floorplan setup, what the view from the top floor looks like, what sort of people live there, if there are thin walls, if the neighbors are loud… And the process continues until I hear, see, touch, taste, or smell something that triggers a whole new thought process.
Most (if not all) people have heard the saying “the grass is always greener on the other side” and I feel as though de Botton touches on this matter in an elegant way (though I suppose it was more of the person he was quoting that could make it seem that way). He incorporates history throughout this book and I found myself relating to the section about Charles Baudelaire intensely. I moved around from city to city when I was young because my mom always thought each city was “the one” – but we always ended up back where we started. I’ve inherited that same desire to move, thinking that city will be better than the last. I actually moved to Seattle from the central coast of California for this very reason (amongst others) – thinking it was just the city I was in that was the problem. And as time passed I realized the same thing that Baudelaire did: “It always seems to me that I’ll be well where I am not, and the question of moving is one that I’m forever entertaining with my soul.” (page 32) I believe you can find happiness through traveling, but through my own personal experience, I also believe it is foolish to expect to be happy the whole time. As de Botton says, “It is easy for us to forget ourselves when we contemplate pictorial and verbal descriptions of places” (page 19) and “the key ingredients of happiness could not be material or aesthetic but must always be stubbornly psychological.” (page 25)
As I get ready to embark on my weekly (or bi-weekly) trips to Portland, I recognize that I have expectations in the back of my mind of how the trips will go. I logically realize that I will most likely not experience quite the excitement or happiness I am anticipating. Not to say I won’t be excited or happy, but rather I will encounter situations that may be intruding- such as an upset stomach, bad drivers, rude people, broken down car, etc. Although I am not going very far from Olympia, I think The Art of Travel has been a great book to get myself in the right kind of mindset for traveling. It has also inspired me to reconsider my modes of transportation. I was originally planning on just driving my car, but now I have decided to go to Portland via train at least once depending on the cost. The last time I was on a train was when I moved to Seattle 3 years and 4 months ago and the descriptions de Botton uses in chapter 2 made me very nostalgic for . If I take the train then I am also more inclined to use public transportation to get around Portland and experience the city in a different way than if I were to rely on driving the entire time. Although going to Portland won’t be anything like going to Dublin, I am looking forward to traveling to a city I have been to before and experiencing it with a whole new perspective.
November 23, 2014
Although I am not able to travel to my original location for Spring (Dublin, Ireland) I am excited to have my focus be on poetry in Portland, Oregon. I have lived in Washington for a little over 3 years and have only been to Portland a handful of times. I fall in love with the city a little more each time I visit and am looking forward to getting to know the city better. During the fall quarter of 2014 I went to Portland with fellow classmates to study slam poetry and immediately felt a strong sense of community. It was unlike any poetry event I have been to and I appreciate the vibe that was created in the very beginning when Jill (the host) asked everyone to stand up and say “I am loved. You are loved. We are all loved.”
Velo Cult Bike Shop (taken from facebook page)
I will be staying at my apartment in Olympia during Spring and make weekly trips to Portland if finances permit. I will be studying all types of poetry for my spring research study including slam poetry, spoken word, written poetry, and visual poetry. I will attend the Portland Poetry Slam Finals held in Mid-April at Velo Cult Bike Shop and continue attending their sunday night poetry events after Slam season has come to an end. I have been searching for other poetry events in Portland but have mostly come across outdated events. There doesn’t seem to be as much happening in 2015 as there was in 2011. April is National Poetry Month so I am looking for more poetry events happening in the area.
The reason I have chosen to focus on poetry for my field study is because it has held a special place in my heart since I was 9 years old. I love that poetry comes in all different shapes, forms, and styles. Instead of relying on physical instruments to evoke certain emotions, poetry relies on the presentation, alliteration, rhythm, repetition, metaphors, similes, and/or many other aspects. I love the rawness, the diversity, that I will generally not get distracted from the content because a guitarist just played an amazing riff or a string broke, but most of all, the community that poetry has created has really won my heart. Even when I go to events outside where I live, I feel welcomed. Every poetry class, every poetry event, every poet that I’ve shared with have all created this community that is supportive no matter your “skill” level, no matter how nervous you are, and no matter how vulnerable you are. I am in no way saying this cannot be found other places, but rather these are what I have found amongst the poet community and why I have chosen to focus on poetry. I have been involved with the poetry community in Seattle, Washington and am looking forward to discover new environments and meet new people in Portland.
November 23, 2014
I am planning to spend time at Powell’s Books located downtown on W Burnside St because it is a great place to practice sketching. There is a cafe that I will sit at if I can find a place to sit and I will also search for a local poet section and possibly buy some books. There is a National Poetry Month Celebration event here on April 13th that I am hoping to attend. I am searching for other local cafe’s around downtown Portland to spend time at. If the whether permits, I will spend time at Waterfront Park or South Waterfront Park (among other parks) to do sketches… I will probably go there rain or shine, just won’t do any sketching in the rain.
Due to finances, I probably won’t be able to get the full immersion of Portland. I am hoping to make it down at least once a week, but I am not sure if I will be able to make that possible. I will go at least every other weekend. This is why I have chosen some heavy books to read, because I will mostly be doing research from Olympia. I am getting my car fixed up to run again, and run safely, so that will help with not having to rely on when others are going or having to stay at a motel/hotel/hostel since it’s only a 2 hour drive.
All plans made are just a rough idea of what I will be doing because new opportunities may arise and schedules may change.
Itinerary:
Week 1
April 12 – April 18
I will be reading Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon. I am hoping to go to Portland for 2 days in the beginning of the week (Saturday & Sunday) to attend Powell’s Books National Poetry Month Celebration and the Portland Slam Poetry event held at Velo Cult Bike Shop. While there I will create sketches, write poems, and walk around the city. I will also be reading selections from of Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution and watch Slam Nation this week.
Week 2
April 19 – April 25
This week I will be reading Portland in Three Centuries, selections from Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution, and Bring Down the Chandeliers. The Portland Art Museum has free admission every 4th friday, so I am planning on going there if I can afford a trip down. I will also be on the look out for poetry events happening if I am able to make a trip down.
Week 3
April 26 – May 2
This week I will be reading Pansy and The Words Don’t Fit in My Mouth and Courage: Daring Poems for Gusty Girls. I will be heading to Portland for a couple days to attend poetry events as well as visiting cafes, doing cityscape sketches, and visiting Waterfront Park. I will also be reading selections from Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution and going to the Poetry event at Velo Cult Bike Shop.
Week 4
May 3 – May 9
This week I will be reading The Smell of Good Mud and The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip Hop & the Poetry of a New Generation and take notes from the readings. I will also be reading selections from Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution.
Week 5
May 10 – May 16
This week I will be continuing reading The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip Hop & the Poetry of a New Generation and take notes from the readings. I will also be reading selections from Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution and Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns. I am hoping to take a day trip to Portland sometime this week – most likely to attend the Poetry event at Velo Cult Bike Shop.
Week 6
May 17 – May 23
I will be reading selections from Take the Mic: The Art of Performance Poetry, Slam, and the Spoken Word and taking notes. I am hoping to take this week as an opportunity to visit Portland one last time before class starting back up. I am hoping to arrive in Portland sometime at the start of the week, stay at least one night and attend at least 1 poetry event. I will also be reading selections from Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution and The Madness Vase. I am planning to attend poetry night at Velo Cult Bike Shop. I will also be starting the process of putting together a chapbook of Portland-inspired poetry I have written, sketches I have done, and photographs I have taken.
Sketch of outside my apartment 3/6/15