Playful Poetry, Danez Smith Reading from Stop/Time Festival

This year Iowa City hosted its first ever Stop/Time Festival through April 3rd and April 4th, which entailed many different musicians, artists, and writers performing at multiple locations. One performance I had the pleasure of attending was a reading at the Englert Theatre by acclaimed poet Danez Smith. 

I certainly had specific expectations going into the reading, but at same time I was excited as I had never gone to a poetry reading before or something related to it like a slam poetry night. I’d assumed that the poetry read aloud would contain somber themes and the whole thing would be defined by a seriousness to it. However, Smith made the whole ordeal feel more like an they were the energetic opener that was getting us ready for the act after them, which was a performance from the Branford Marsalis Quartet. 

Smith started off with (and retained really) a cheerful attitude and surprisingly wanted the audience to react loudly. They started off with the classic “Hello, Iowa City!” expecting we would cheer loudly back. Of course when that didn’t happen, they demanded we do try again. Naturally, the audience (and myself) did cheer louder, and Smith remarked on how that was an improvement. I found myself shocked as I didn’t think you were even allowed to cheer at a poetry reading. I never thought I’d see a poet actively wanting to hype up their audience. Nevertheless it was a pleasant surprise and made me intrigued into what was coming next.

For the poems themselves, I really admire the selection Smith had gone with. The first poem was about Sioux City, another city in Iowa that was a nice way of adding something special for the Iowa City audience. I liked how the poem used the location to discuss something more serious like colonialism, which didn’t feel unnatural in the overall poem. Certain lines that stuck with me were “naked strangers,” and “evidence of evil,” just to name a couple. 

Smith followed those poems with a few love poems as well, I remember one was dedicated to their husband which of course when Smith mentioned that made me and some audience members audibly go “aww!” and of course Smith followed it up with a joke. I also recollect that Smith shared a poem which detailed how their barber had found out they were queer, which I found impactful and well well written. 

This reading if anything at points did feel like a stand-up show of sorts, Smith wasn’t afraid to crack jokes every now and then. Some that really stuck with me and had me laughing was their joke regarding the recent revelation made about former Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s husband, and one later that came when Smith had asked the lesbians in the crowd to cheer and unfortunately no one had cheered. I remembered Smith’s exaggerated shock and reminded the audience we should love lesbians before they moved on to reading a poem about lesbians. 

Overall, I would say Danez Smith’s poetry reading was quite literally the most memorable fifteen minutes I’ve experienced thus far. Smith’s poetry reading really showed that poetry readings don’t always have to maintain its serious flair and can be lighthearted. After the reading had ended, it definitely sparked an interest in checking out more of Smith’s work and maybe even attend another poetry reading in the possible future. I can only hope they can capture my attention that Smith did but as of right now, that’s gonna be pretty tough to beat.

Ria Das