Tamara's Opus By Joshua Bennet

Spoken word poetry is the oral poetic form of poems. In Joshua Bennet's spoken word performance of "Tamara's Opus" at the White House on May 12, 2009, he conveys how communication restores and connects relationships among people. Bennet also conveys that admitting to your immorality and apologizing is crucial to forgiveness. Bennet demonstrates this by emphasizing his change throughout the spoken performance using sign language, gestures, and tone. For teens in my community, this is a performance I recommend watching, as it teaches us all about communication and apology.

To begin with, at the beginning of the spoken poem, Bennett conveys his feelings towards finding out his sister is deaf. When Bennett's father tells him, “ ‘nothing

He also does this to highlight the part of his life where he lost connection with his sister. Before, Bennett viewed Tamara as someone normal, just like him. He had connections with Tamara, and he loved her. Although after being told the bad news, Bennett begins to form a barrier in their relationship. This is effective because it emphasizes a particular section of the performance, telling the audience that what Bennett is saying is important. Furthermore, Bennett describes his emotion when he explains that the words his father told him "felt like hammers" (Bennet I 14). In this section of the poem, Bennett describes his pain by using gestures. Bennett uses this performance technique to express himself more clearly. At the time, Bennett was five, so he could not fully understand the circumstance. Bennett thinks this is the end of their relationship, and their connection will break apart. Later on, Bennett also states that his innocence is shattered because he no longer views things the same. This is effective because Bennett can visually show his pain, helping the audience understand his feelings. Also, not only does Bennett compare what his father has told him to hammers, but in I 15, he explains

He also explains that he is eager to speak with Tamara now that he has learned sign language. In Bennett's spoken word poetry performance, he apologizes by saying, "Tamara, I am sorry/for my silence" (II 56-57). Bennett chose to use sign language here. The reason for this is that he wants to show his deep, sympathetic affection and concern. It also showed his accomplishment of learning to communicate through sign language. Before, Bennett did not know how to communicate through this, but now he can. This allows him to be able to express himself and tell Tamara what he has always wanted to say to her. This is effective because it explains Bennett's new affection towards Tamara and the barrier he overcame. Next, in II 59 to 61 of Bennett's spoken word poem, he describes that when he sees his sister, he "will use these hands/to speak volumes that could never be contained." In this section, Bennett uses gestures to explain this. He does this because he's trying to emphasize his new skill of having the ability to communicate. This teaches the audience how to communicate to retain a healthy relationship with the ones close to them. When Bennett performs this, he raises his hands and forms a fist. This serves as a good visual for the audience.Since Bennett explains his success through his perseverance, trying to get others to do the same, this is effective. Thus, when