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Show www.dailyutahchronicle.com 5 ARTS Thursday November 14, 2013 USpeak breathes life into poetry Katrina Vastag STAFF WRITER Every Thursday at 7 p.m., the U's spoken word poetry club, USpeak, puts on a writing workshop in the Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building. The meetings are open to all students and are not exclusive to members. Those who attend will explore pieces they write and receive feedback from attendees. "It's really an open space to work on what you are most comfortable with," said Carey McComas, a junior in English and one of the club organizers. USpeak is very relaxed, but those who attend should expect quality advice from peers. Participating club members are well-versed in poetry structure and techniques. Not only do they critique writing, but they also comment on performance style. The poems workshopped at USpeak are read aloud and performed in the typical spoken word style. Everything from word choice to imagery to artistic meaning is analyzed, and there is an array of constructive criticism offered as well as uplifting encouragement. "Everybody has their own voice and their own style, and they communicate in a certain way, and it's so interesting to see that across the board for everybody," McComas said. "We're all connected by this thing called poetry, but it's so subjective and something that's so different for each individual person." McComas joined USpeak last spring when she was at a community event and one of the members, Kari Lindsey, who is now known as the "slam master," approached her and asked if McComas would be attending the U. "She asked me to start writing for [the group] so that I could participate in the collegiate performance and competition that happens in New York," McComas said. "And I did." USpeak is open for anyone who would like to give poetry a try. The club urges people who are interested in or curious about poetry to check out their slams so they can get a feel for what USpeak is about. "I'm one of those crazy people who think that sometimes education can hamper creativity, so I love how anybody can do this," McComas said. "It's pretty hard to make someone laugh, cry and everything in between in three minutes and ten seconds, I get it. But it's such an amazing experience once you get there. It's not something that's easy. It's something you work for and work on. It's something you have to practice. It's a way to discipline yourself but at the same time have that flexible creativity with it as well." As for variety, USpeak has plenty. Many poets write in different styles and about different topics. Everyone is free to write what they choose and are encouraged to showcase ideas that induce a response from the listener or reader. The club has members from an assortment of majors and is a place for many students to get their creative fix. Aside from the writing workshops, the club also participates in competitions throughout the poetry community and puts on slams about once a month at the U. One of the other core organizers, Nick Shifrar, better known as Organik, was one of the first members of USpeak and got involved his freshman year of college after he went to the Salt Lake Arts Festival and discovered there was a community of spoken word poets in the city. "There were four people I coordinated with there, and we were like, 'Let's do a poetry group!" he said. "And so we set it up and then there was a lot of flux with the members. Then Brian Gray came in, who was a stable member of the slam poetry community of the city. He wanted to set up a team and send them to a national competition. So then we structured it around that and started doing performance poetry at the U." Members of the club are people who love writing and listening to poetry, and to many it is both the poetry and the people involved that is most rewarding. "When someone creates something and they express themselves, be it politically or romantically or just in a raw, human way ... it's something that is very rewarding to be able to listen to and immerse myself in," Shifrar said. "Sometimes poetry is very solitary. There are people who may write something, and it just sits and dies. This is a writing community — it keeps our poetry alive." k.yastag@chronicle.utah.edu PHOTO COURTESY OF USPEAK USpeak president Karl Lindsey performing for a USpeak event. `Winter Group Show' blends past, present, future Scholarship provides work, materials and opportunity for art students Joe Meyere STAFF WRITER times looks into deep water," Borup said. With its wide variety of art, Phillips Gallery takes a lot of time to hang its pieces and properly display them. Since there is a wide variety of artwork to display, a lot of planning went behind the "Winter Group Show." When explaining the process of demonstrating an extensive exhibit, Rampton used the metaphor of a puzzle. "In terms of putting it [the gallery] together, hanging it and making it work cohesively, it's kind of a puzzle," Rampton said. "We put things on the floor and start seeing what works together. Think of the way a puzzle works. It's very much that way. This [art] works with this. This isn't working over here. Let's try it over there." Art supplies are expensive. Canvases and paints don't rain from the sky, and neither do exhibition opportunities. Attempting to jump such art hurdles is the Howard Clark Scholarship Exhibition, which gives two students money for provisions and the chance to showcase their work. "It's a really unique scholarship," said Brian Snapp, chair of the Department of Art and Art History at the U. "I think the students really appreciate it. It puts them in this professional situation. It's almost like getting commissioned for work, like someone is paying for their work — paying up front for you to make work. " Last year's winners, Alexander Hraefn Morris and Kyle Odland, both U graduates, will be revealing their year-long projects this evening in the Gittins Gallery in an open reception from 6 to 8 p.m. With the burden of finance relieved, the artists are able to freely express themselves. "With the funds allotted to me, I was able to buy all that I needed to produce the work for my show and supply my studio with the equipment I needed," Morris said. "I am extraordinarily grateful to Howard Clark and the faculty at the U's Art and Art History Department for awarding me with this honor." The Alvin Gittins Gallery is the perfect area to display the award recipients' artwork. The gallery is an eloquently designed space and is a far different experience than reading a book or playing a video game. Art in person produces an energy that invokes primal emotions that go beyond language and thought. Morris took this into account when structuring his designs. "There is strength and solidarity in lines, textures and layers. I am attracted to line work, color fields and the relationship between color and space, predominantly the shape of the human soul, the human spirit. Line shapes into [a] pattern becoming [a] figurative form," Morris said. "My lines are an abstract guardian, and the textures and layers depict the cumulative history of the human experience." The Howard Clark Scholarship Exhibition will be on display Nov. 4 through Dec. 6. fmoody@chronicle.utah.edu j.meyere@chronicle.utah.edu PHOTO COURTESY OF PHILLIPS GALLERY The Phillips Gallery is presenting its Winter Group show this month, opening Nov. 15. Frances Moody ARTS EDITOR The expression "opposites attract" is an overused statement in the world of relationships. Nonetheless, this cliché fits comfortably in the art realm. Working to intermingle the contrasting genres of painting, 3D art, photography and printmaking is Phillips Gallery. Located in downtown Salt Lake City, this art house is known for its eclectic collection and display of talent. Reaching for its goals, Phillips Gallery will premiere the annual "Winter Group Show" this Friday, an event designed to represent the past, present and future of the exhibition space. "We show all the artists that we represent in our gallery on a continual basis," said Hadley Rampton, Phillips Gallery's fine art consultant. "Although we do take advantage of these group shows to show some new artists that we are trying out." Demonstrating the gallery's past is the work of Lee Deffebach. Until her death in 2005, Deffebach's creations were constantly on display throughout the state. Now it is hard to come by her formations of color field painting and ideas of abstract expressionism. In its years as an art space, Phillips Gallery has showcased Deffebach's creations. And for its "Winter Group Show," they are lucky enough to exhibit one of her paintings. From past to present, Phillips Gallery is showing the new and old side by side. Shawn Rossiter and Liberty Blake have collaborated to make an intricate collage piece. Their work has never been at the gallery and is a great way to show what artists are fashioning in the present day. Also, by mixing painting with collage work, the building is following its tradition of placing different art mediums on the same wall. This Friday, the space will also offer a glimpse of its future exhibition with a landscape by Connie Borup titled "Tangles," which plays with the intertwining of tree branches. Borup is an artist who works with oil and strives to depict the up close patterns of nature. Her paintings will be the headlining act of Phillips Gallery's January exhibition. For January's show, Borup's theme is water. "This show is looking at plants growing in water, leaves floating on water and |