Shaker Library Poetry Jam offers residents an outlet for self-expression
By Lyndsey Brennan
Inez Boon, Berttina Walker, and Linnette E. Lawson process onstage while singing, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Photos by Robert Muller.
It’s a Sunday afternoon in late April, and more than 70 people are gathered at the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Community Building in their Sunday best. This isn’t church, but it’s something like it.
Over the course of an hour, nine local poets, including two Shaker Heights High School students, perform poems on the theme of The Black Experience: Our Community, Our Selves.
Poetry is the most genuine expression of someone’s personal truth.
The poems are stylistically diverse and address a wide range of topics, but each has something in common: they center the emotions of the Black performers and translate their inner worlds into art that moves the audience to tears, whoops, and the occasional verbal affirmation.
Shaker resident Monica Boone, the director and driving force behind the Poetry Jam, has been producing storytelling showcases at Shaker Library since 2019. Her previous shows centered on topics like racism and domestic violence.
This year, she decided to reprise 2022’s Poetry Jam, pulling in Shaker Library, Moreland Community Theatre, the City of Shaker Heights, and MYCOM as sponsors.
“I love putting these performances together for the library,” says Boone. “I love that I’m in a position to showcase the wonderful talent we have here in Shaker and bask in their creativeness.”
Boone said that to her, poetry is “the most genuine expression of someone’s personal truth.”
“Often, when you’re trying to explain yourself, you can get jammed up with political correctness and sparing people’s feelings and things like that. You censor yourself. But when you write poetry, you can say it all – your thoughts, feelings, pain, and aspirations. It’s all there,” she says.
Poetry Jam director and Moreland resident Monical Boone
Berttina Walker, a poet who has been involved with at least three of Boone’s productions, says it means the world to her to be able to perform her poems in this venue.
“After the performance, people in the audience came up and told me, ‘I could relate to that. It’s like someone understands me.’ And that’s a powerful thing – when you realize you’re not alone,” she says.
Performing with younger poets and sharing these powerful moments with them is meaningful to Walker. “It’s like passing on your legacy,” she says.
Boone chimes in: “This experience gives the younger poets mentorship, fellowship, and the joy of expressing their own truths.”story.”
Sophomore Cydney Burrell performed a poem she wrote called “Change the Narrative.”
“It’s about a Black girl who’s sitting in a classroom. She’s surrounded by people who look like her, but nobody understands her. Her teacher talks about African American history, and her mom is telling her, ‘This is your history,’ and she’s wondering why the narrative has been left negative.”
“Change the Narrative” is Burrell’s pep talk to herself – “You can always change the narrative to a positive one. I want to change the way that people see me and my peers. That starts with changing how I tell my own story.”
