seconds of silence now for most of us
that was probably the first ten seconds
of silence we’ve had all day between our
friends and our families our work in our
phones it’s hard for us just to find a
quiet time to sit with our thoughts with
our emotions but silence can be powerful
it’s the pregnant air before a new idea
is born and the greatest strength that
silence possesses is its ability to make
people listen but I’ll get back to
silence my name is Regis Kosta lack I’m
a poet currently attending Kent State
University I work at the whig poetry
center at Kent State I do many things at
wick but I’m most proud of my work as a
teaching artist now what that means is
that I organize and execute poetry
workshops aimed at different groups in
the communities the goal is to use
poetry as a tool to let new voices
spring forth from the community to share
their stories I started my work with
elementary and middle school students
and I’ve continued on to work with
different populations a grief counseling
group adults earning their GEDs most
recently I’ve been working with
immigrants and refugees both adults and
children from the North Hill
neighborhood of Akron now I want to
explain these workshops to you so that
you understand the power of silence with
the kids every Thursday we get together
with 3rd to 8th graders at a wonderful
after-school program called urban vision
now we break them into three groups and
each group gets 30 minutes I don’t know
if any of you had the pleasure of being
around kids right after they get out of
school when they’re all wound up and
tired of sitting still but if you have
then you know that 30 minutes feels like
for silence is non-existent sometimes
they’re talking so fast that you have to
remind them just to breathe so to combat
that we use multiple teachers already to
give lots of attention to individuals we
read a poem we talked about it for five
or ten minutes we write some stuff on
the board and then we get them going we
let them right
and in the last five minutes we asked
for silence so they can share their work
now with the adults it’s much different
see everyone in this workshop is a
first-generation American from different
parts of Asia or Africa Europe or South
America they’re all learning English
most of them have only been here for a
few months if not a couple of weeks now
try to imagine that you’ve just gotten
to this country you barely speak the
language and some guy like me is telling
you to write a poem in english on the
spot now I know for a fact that if I
gave every single person in this room a
piece of paper and a pen half of you
wouldn’t even put your names on it let
alone write a poem so what these people
do is very brave now the difference is
with this group we have two hours we use
less teachers and we use flashcards to
help offer them some of the language
they might not have learned yet we do a
whole hour of board work and because of
the extra time we have a much greater
window for them to all share their work
at the end and they do all share their
work so what does this have to do with
silence well the silence is integral to
poetry you see if you put a person in a
room and you take away their phone you
make sure that it’s silent that person
will look for an outlet now if you give
them a paper and a pen they will write
and since most people are not able to
draw fantastically fictitious scenes
from nothing they will write about
themselves now some people will take 15
seconds to pick up that pen and some of
them will take 15 minutes but they all
pick it up and they all right about
themselves in one fashion or another the
silence is crucial to this expression
see the silence signals an importance to
that moment it signals an attention to
that person’s writing an attention to
their reading when they share the poem
that’s an attention that we all crave
it’s important because it gives these
people an opportunity to share
themselves with the other people in the
room people that also have an
opportunity to hear them
now I wish to use this same formula of
poetry workshops to bring a touch of
silence and understanding into the one
place that I believe we need it most and
that is the political sphere I want to
discuss a 2010 study that was conducted
by the information and computer sciences
department at the University of Hawaii
now they conducted a deep analysis of
over 680,000 facebook posts surrounding
the two thousand eight election which I
know seems like forever ago but it’s
extremely relevant I don’t know about
you but most of the people that i knew
in this past election shared their
political beliefs via facebook they
posted comments they posted statuses
they shared videos and that’s all fine
but what this study wanted to determine
was whether or not Facebook was serving
an appropriate forum for political
discourse essentially can Facebook and
then taking that further console media
serve as the public sphere can it foster
true political discourse in this study a
number of requirements were laid forth
for a forum to be considered a
functioning public sphere you’ll see
listed here a number of them now i’m
going to read them to you and I want you
to think about what you see on facebook
and ask yourself if those posts are
representative of these ideals an
exchange and critique of reasoned moral
practical validity claims reflexivity
ideal role taking sincerity let me
repeat that one sincerity discursive
inclusion and equality and then finally
autonomy from state and economic power
now I know that’s a lot for me to throw
at you it’s late in the afternoon and I
definitely don’t want you to pull out
your phones and check your Facebook’s
right now so I saved you the time I know
we thought we were all done watching the
candidates debate but I promise you that
it’s just a photo we don’t have to
listen them speak again but I’d like to
look at some of the comments that were
posted during this last debate and think
about those requirements that were put
up there all i hear is him bashing her
you’re going to state your case anytime
soon he should know about drugs he’s the
biggest user of them all her lies are
all
exposed paying attention people doofus
buffoon which I have to stop as a poet
and commend that man for a brilliant
insult doofus buffoon that’s a lovely
phrase and then my favorite one America
needs to be single for the next eight
years let’s see how that works I think
that’s my favorite one because he’s
assuming we’re going to get to terms of
single America right it’s going to go
well in his eyes so let’s ask ourselves
did those meet the requirements that
were listed before the answer is no but
they did all share one thing in common
they’re all focused on a candidate not
on anything of substance there’s no
discussion of political issues of
personal beliefs which I understand
because a discussion involving personal
beliefs can be a dangerous one but we’ve
gotten to the point where our
presidential elections have become a
beauty contest we talk about our
candidates the same way we discussed the
contestants on The Bachelor each week I
mean really it’s it’s becoming
frightening to me and the study showed
results that supported this it found
basically that the loudest voice is
heard that the person willing to spend
the most time typing has the greatest
sway it showed that just over sixty
percent of the pronouns used on Facebook
were external rather than internal
meaning that people aren’t posting about
themselves they’re making statements and
oftentimes assumptions about other
people but mostly it showed that most
people simply don’t post enough on
facebook to be considered taking part in
any form of political dialogue and
what’s most important to me is that the
internet for all of its wonders offers
us no silence in which to consider what
we’ve read there’s no pause no silence
in which to contemplate but the
information is endless the comments
never stop now let me put those public
sphere requirements back up there while
I describe to you what a political
poetry workshop looks like and you can
tell me if I’m achieving true discourse
when we begin everyone in the room puts
their phones in a basket there will be
no distractions there will be no fear of
public
online humiliation then we go around and
introduce ourselves we put a name to
every single strange face next the
mediator would introduce a political
issue now this can take the form of a
photograph a news article or a simple
topic but then a poem written by the
mediator about that issue will be read
aloud now this is an important part of
the process because if I don’t prove to
them that I can write a poem that is at
the same time honest innocent and
personal without attacking anyone
specifically then I have no credibility
they won’t believe that they can do the
same see I must be willing to offer a
piece of my heart to them before they
will offer me a piece of dares instead
of discussing the political issue itself
will discuss the poem and what lines
stood out to us and why they stood out
we’ll discuss the importance of honesty
and vulnerability this diffuses the
tension that’s in the room then we use
common writing techniques we use word
trees which serve as a cheat sheet for
language when people get stuck we do
group poems which foster cooperation and
prove that anybody can write a poem we
use provocative questions to foster
inclusion because some people don’t feel
that they can write a line of poetry but
they can answer a question if I ask them
one then comes the first bit of silence
30 minutes of it now I saw the way that
you all squirmed when I forced you to
endure just 10 seconds of silence well
during 30 minutes of silence a wonderful
thing happens see the mind wanders it
Ponder’s and pounces on different
thoughts even those who are hesitant to
write pick up the pen because why not
they realized that nobody is there to
criticize them we are all feeling that
same awkward hesitation as they are this
is not Facebook in which the first
thought fired out represents the thinker
now 30 minutes is enough time to say
what you mean then the mediator walks
around to check progress and help flesh
out the poems more fully to offer the
participants more questions or point out
a stream of thought
worth following then at the end of the
30 minutes we share our poems and each
poem is preceded by that touch of
silence by that pregnant air before a
new idea is born and from each person’s
mouth a new idea is born it’s shared
with the other people in that room and
what follows the poem yeah silence so
that it has room to grow in other
people’s hearts no comments no applause
simply the next reader and when
everybody is red we go home because it
is enough in today’s day and age to
simply consider somebody else’s thoughts
without responding without expecting to
sway or be swayed we just need to make
sure that we’re all being heard and not
just by the people who agree with us but
by the people who disagree with us in
order to respect that right that we all
cherish the right to have an opinion the
right to be an individual now I see
these workshops as an opportunity to
open people to that elusive voice of the
other the act of sharing poetry allows
you to understand somebody who doesn’t
agree with you it allows you to listen
and hear briefly what drives another
individual it promises a calm silence
instead of hateful rebuttal in a
political context it gives us a chance
to know not only what issues are
important to people but why those issues
are important to them on a personal
deeply intimate level now it’s important
to remember that politics do not have to
be taken as broadly as they are around
election time in fact I think it’s more
effective to Center these around
singular issues around smaller groups
before expanding the larger ones and I
know what I’m recommending right now is
a bit of a culture shift but I think
it’s time for that I would love to see
us start this right here at kent state
so that we can begin to repair
relationships on a local level so that
we can shift the perceptions of other
people that we all carry with us
perceptions which influence national
politics I imagine these workshops
taking place between the campus police
and the student body between
administration and faculty
between students of different races
different genders and ethnicities and
religions between Democrats and
Republicans I see these poetry workshops
as a way to defuse existing tension and
encourage true cooperation in our
community and once we begin I see the
entire country recognizing what the gift
of silence can do for those people
searching for a voice and when they do
recognize that we here at Kent State
will teach them to share their voices
the way we have been sharing hours so I
urge any administrators in attendance
any educators or any lawmakers anybody
with a platform to be bold to be
proactive to recognize that we are
currently engaging in a form of
political discourse that is both
divisive and damaging to the national
psyche help me make this idea a reality
the costs are minimal you need a
mediator you need paper and pens you
need time but most importantly what we
all need to embrace in this screaming
shouting out of control world is just a
little bit of silence thank you [Applause]