George Watsky Themes

I’ve have been a big George Watsky fan ever since my junior year of high school when I started to get into performance poetry. When I found out that the famous Emerson alum was coming to back to school to perform a show, I booked the tickets immediately. The venue for the show was the Semel Theatre, a large black box theater with auditorium seating. As people shuffled in and waited, George was already sitting in the corner of the theatre, practicing and reciting his lines. This was representation of how the performance was going to be, well-rehearsed and prepared carefully and purposefully. George started the show off with a slam poem about technology. A sharp, cunning piece that he read through with the quickness and intensity that made him earn respect as a rapper. George stood being the microphone without moving at all, just spitting all his words and intention out into the space to either be absorbed or ignored. His fearless tone gave the impression that he didn’t care which of the two people did. He ended the piece by doing something
Every piece he performed in one way or another connected to one of these three themes. As somebody who knows George’s work well, these three things are always connected to him and therefore made his delivery very genuine and natural. This was my first time seeing George Watsky live and so I was hearing poems that I had read only in my head before, performed out loud. This taught me a lot about how I can improve my own delivery, because while I had my own ideas about how I thought certain things could be said, George often delivered the exact opposite tone I would have expected. That was what I took away most for my own self to improve on, taking and applying other delivery/emotions into a piece than the ones that initially resonate with me. Usually I just go with whatever I first interpret, but now I can see how beneficial other perspectives can be on a