On Thursday, September 26th Kents Hill students had the privilege to listen to our first guest speaker of the year, Andre Bradford: a Texas based slam poet. Students gathered in the Bodman to listen to Andre tell stories, perform poems, and give advice about purposeful empathy, social justice, and mental health recognition.
Andre’s main goal was to share a connection with his audience as he relayed a multitude of personal stories revolving around empathy. One relatable story he shared with us – and one our audience loved – described a bad day being stuck in a line at a Walgreens behind a woman buying a comprehensive list of food and taking a while to pay for it all. After following her out of the store in irritation, he saw that all of the food was for a homeless man outside. He says in a realization, “This, this is what love looks like.” Andre’s poem emphasized the meaningful impact of empathy and how understanding within society is beneficial to the growth of a community.
In addition to appreciating his poignant poems and advice, Kents Hill connected with Andre’s vulnerability and gratitude. Following Andre’s performance, many students told him they were able to relate to his experiences. One student shared with Andre, “I really like your point about how sometimes our outside appearance doesn’t always match our inside feelings.” Other students shared their struggles with mental health and thanked him for being so public about his own struggles.
At the end of the day Andre led a Deep Dive Empathy Workshop with Student Leaders, as well as any other students who wanted to attend. Andre asked us to make a circle diagram and label four sections – feel, think, need, and do – to use as a tool to guide us while navigating high school and its challenges, inspiring the group to think more deeply about the people we surround ourselves with and more deeply about how we can continue to build a stronger community built on empathy.
Before his performance, we were given the opportunity to have a conversation with Andre to talk about his motivations, his message, and how he got to where he is now. We’ve recounted some questions below.
Q: What is your brainstorming process for creating such vivid poetry?
A: “Right now, it consists of seeing something ridiculous happen in life and then being like ‘oh, I think I might want to write about that!’”
Andre went on to explain his use of an app called Bear, and that when certain lines or ideas come to him, he jots them down. He gave us some intriguing examples such as “In the Hollywood version of our story…” or “ I want to hide in depression’s bald spot…” that seemed to be the beginnings of his current work.
Q: Do you have a target audience for your poems?
A: “Yes, but ultimately, no.”
He explained his answer, telling us that while he generally writes for a slam audience – which consists of people looking to be entertained, interacted with, and offered a new perspective – he still wants anybody to be able to relate to any poem he puts on the stage.
Q: How do you keep different audiences engaged with the same performances? Do you change up your routine?
A: “Yes! And what’s cool about slam poetry is that you never know what you’re gonna get, audience-wise. I’ve had training with rowdy audiences, utterly quiet audiences, and so I think, mentally, that sort of prepared me for anything.”
Andre described his theater days and how they prepared him to “feel an audience’s energy, and channel that.”
Q: What advice would you give to an aspiring slam poet?
A: “Don’t be too married to your style of writing from the jump. More than anything, go experience a bunch of different scenes.”
Andre talked about how grateful he was, in his journey of entering slam poetry, to have six months of hearing different styles before he ever approached the page. From these experiences, he was able to pick out what he liked, what resonated with him, what he thought he could do better, and what he needed to work on. This personal style element is important because one thing as a competing poet that you want to steer away from is “slam voice.”
Q: By coming to Kents Hill, what knowledge do you hope to share?
A: “The overarching theme, absolutely, is to really paint a picture of why empathy is valuable and important.”
Andre says he just wants to keep the momentum going at Kents Hill and continue to prompt some really good conversations. He shared with us that the best way he’s connected with people is through storytelling and being vulnerable, so he uses it as a catalyst for conversation.
Looking back on Andre’s performance at Kents Hill, his skill in captivating a crowd is evident. His poems not only entranced everyone present, but also reeled in students who otherwise wouldn’t have been interested. On this note, Andre sincerely provided his overall message to the Kents Hill community in two words: “Close in.” He continued, “Especially in a boarding school, I want you to find the ability to have authentic conversations and not have them be so awkward- or so rare! I want to get the community as a whole to lead with empathy.”
We really appreciated the time he spent with us and hope that Kents Hill has the pleasure of hosting him again!