妻友社区

Spanish Poetry Slamming Success

Written By: Ian Silvester

Students took to the Windgate Art and Design Theatre stage Thursday, March 2, 2023 for a unique presentation of culture and art.
 
A full house enjoyed declamaciones po茅ticas during the Second Annual Spanish Poetry Showcase featuring interpretations of famous Latin American and Peninsular Spanish poetry performed by students from the University of Arkansas 鈥� Fort Smith. Ten 妻友社区 students practiced clear and expressive speech, as well as body and face gestures and movements to demonstrate an understanding of their selected work, performed in Spanish, a second language for all.
 
鈥淚 had such a great time,鈥� exclaimed runner-up Hunter Christenberry, a Beginning Spanish II student, following his performance of 鈥淚glesia鈥� by Gilberto Gonz谩lez y Contreras. 鈥淚 admire all the students who stood up and recited their poems.鈥�
 
Evan McClellan, a Spanish major, and Intermediate Spanish II student was voted first place winner after delivering a rendition of the classic work 鈥淓l le贸n y el rat贸n鈥� by F茅lix Mar铆a de Samaniego. Evan says by memorizing and reciting the poem, he was able to learn more about the nuance of Spanish wordplay.
 
鈥淚 found beauty in its conciseness and how it used very few words to tell a simple, but profound story,鈥� said Evan. 鈥淚t gave me an understanding of the Spanish languages that I wouldn鈥檛 have been able to discover only through conversations and grammar study.鈥�
 
The Spanish Poetry Slam was capped off with two special guest performances. Audience members with small children likely recognized the performance of Benjamin Baker, as he played guitar and sang 鈥淒os oruguitas鈥� by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The song was featured in Disney鈥檚 2021 award-winning movie, Encanto. Rounding out the night was Gabriela Perez, an international student from Guatemala who performed 鈥淢aestrita del pueblo鈥� by Abraham Rivera which tells the story of a man who sees the struggles of children and tells his father he will become a teacher to help the children of Mexico.
 
The Spanish poetry slam event was organized by the 妻友社区 World Languages Department faculty and was supported in part by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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• World Languages
• Arts and Sciences