The Power of Spoken Word & Poetry

    The Bronx Masquerade by Niki Grimes not only discusses the power of poetry and spoken word poetry but also shares the poetry that the students write. Grimes allows her readers to hear the student's thoughts and hardships and see how they express these thoughts through poetry; Grimes indeed shows the power of poetry. 

    Grimes begins this novel with one student, Wesley Boone, handing in a poem instead of an essay, and the teacher responds with, "Great poem, but I still expect to see an essay from you. I'll give you another week" (Grimes, 4). Grimes is introducing the theme of giving a voice to the voiceless, a theme that stays evident and prominent throughout the novel. At first, Mr.Ward somewhat dismisses the poem Wesley wrote, but when Mr. Ward learns that another student, Tyrone Bittings, also has a poem to share, Ward soon realizes the power of poetry. Open Mic Fridays allow Mr. Ward to give a voice to these voiceless, minority, struggling students.

    One aspect of this novel that I found particularly interesting was to see how the student's thoughts changed about their classmates after their classmates read aloud their poetry. Not only does poetry allow the students to share their fears, hardships, thoughts, and feelings, but it invites their classmates to understand their peers on a deeper level. It allows the students to sympathize and connect with one another, which is very powerful to me. We see the power of this connection throughout the novel with many characters. One example is after Gloria Martinez's poem about being a teen mom, we shift to see Tyrone's point of view, where Tyrone thinks... "Girl's got a lot of heart, coming back to school after having a baby...the girl ain't no dummy. Not writing poetry like that" (Grimes, 45); Tyrone is beginning to respect and sympathize with his fellow classmates, classmates he may have made fun of or ignored before. We also see a similar encounter with Leslie Lucas and her classmates. Leslie's first journal entry states that, "it's like we come from two different planets" (Grimes, 51) when talking about herself and her other classmates. It is clear that Leslie does not relate or think she'll ever relate to any of her students. However, Porscha Johnson and Leslie begin to relate to one another on the ground of both of their mother's death, which "made no difference at all. Dead is dead, and lonely is lonely" (Grimes, 53). Also, our main student, Tyrone, also shares, "Man, that white girl be getting pretty deep." (Grimes, 57). The changing and growing relationships between the students truly show how powerful poetry and open mic is. It allows each student a voice, but in return, it allows the students to listen to their classmate's voices. 

    This theme of giving a voice to the voiceless is seen in many banned books. For example in, The Color Purple; Cecilie is given a voice through her diary with God and letters with her sister. Banning books limits giving a voice to the voiceless--many books are banned on charges of  'inappropriate' sexual content or 'offensive' language. Most books that are banned discuss ideas of race and gender identity. These frequently banned books represent a group of students that may not feel represented in other novels. However, if we continue banning books we continue to limit the power of words.

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