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Arts & Entertainment

Teen's Poetic Prowess Taking Him Places

Talented Middletown youth was youngest chosen to compete at the Brave New Voices Competition in San Francisco.

Sixteen year-old Evan Knoll of Middletown is letting his words and their power take him places this summer.

Chosen as one of only six to be part of the One Word CT/Youth Poetry Slam Team 2011, Evan traveled recently across the country to compete against other similarly talented for the 14th Annual Brave New Voices Competition in San Francisco.

Created in 1998, the Brave New Voices Youth Poetry Slam Festival is the largest youth poetry festival in the world, bringing more than 600 youth together to compete against one another. The festival focuses on arts education, performance, local program development, literary opportunity, national movement organizing and highlighting a new generation of performing artists.

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Evan, the youngest on this year’s Connecticut team, is no stranger to performing in front of crowds, as he also competed in last year’s competition, which was held in Los Angeles. He said it was a great experience and this year was more of the same.

“It was just a very, very friendly atmosphere. It was interesting getting to know other writers who were around the same age as I am,” said Evan, who participated in workshops, saw a spoken word show, competed and participated in many other activities.

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“This is an awesome learning opportunity to get in touch with publishers, learn more about writing and network with like-minded people.”

He performed three, three-and-a-half-minute poems at the competition. He doesn’t choose his poems before he leaves, he said he likes to see what is going on first before he makes his decision on his poems of choice.

Infusing his intelligent writing with ideas and thoughts he gathers from his everyday life and those around him, Evan follows the cardinal rule of any good writer, “writing what he knows.” One of the poems he won at a local slam, “Patrick,” is about a close friend of his living with cerebral palsy.

“I write a lot about my family,” said Evan, whose favorite writer is contemporary poet Pablo Neruda. “I like that he writes a lot of odes to weird stuff. He just takes a lot of grand concepts and writes them from a weird perspective that really makes you think. Like enjoying the way women laugh.”

The teen’s writing philosophy is to constantly write and write honestly, everything else will get picked up along the way. Like most writers, he redrafts his work constantly and is never quite sure it is completely finished. What he loves most about poetry is that it allows him to be honest and exposed.

His mother Bobbye says Evan's talent was evident to his family early on.

"Evan started writing poetry when he was in middle school. When he first started sharing his poetry with us, we were all pretty blown away. He had a really advanced grasp of metaphor and simile.

"He has been to the West Coast twice to perform at Brave New Voices festivals. He has also performed at the New Yourican Cafe in New York City (where he was the second-place poet at the Summer Slam)."

Bobbye says her son is the only poet in the family.

"The love that Evan has for poetry and his drive to perform has provided Evan with opportunities to go places and meet people who share his love for spoken word."

As for where his talent comes from, Bobbye isn't sure.

"Evan has always been someone who excels in creative activities. In addition to poetry, Evan performs with the Oddfellows Playhouse Traveling Circus and this week went to Sarasota, Fla., for the American Youth Circus Festival."

Evan thanks his mother for getting him involved in the world of poetry slams. “She knows I like to write, so when she heard about this, she thought it would be a great thing for me to do and it has worked out so far,” he said. Evan found immediate success in the poetry arena when he won first place at his very first poetry slam.

The teen's hope for the future is to pursue his poetry, eventually making his living as a writer.

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