The Yedda Morrison reviews keep on coming! This one is from student Paul Bone:
Yedda Morrison might just become the default person that comes to my mind from now on whenever somebody uses the word “artist”. I say this because of her impressive skills in multiple artistic fields. She is a writer, a visual artist, and as it turns out she’s not a bad singer either. All of these skills were put on display for students to see at her recent reading at Eastern Michigan University.
After a brief introduction by Carla Harryman, Yedda Morrison took the stage. Once taking the stage, she immediately began her reading. It was interesting to see such a straightforward approach. Normally, the writer gives some sort of introduction of themselves, which also gives the audience some background information about the reading. Since she began reading right away, the audience didn’t get that information, and it was quite refreshing. This immediate reading allowed Morrison’s work to stand on its own, rather than simply being an attachment to her autobiography. This made it pleasurable for the listener who wasn’t entirely familiar with Yedda Morrison, as they were able to listen to the work without any preconceived notions or opinions about who Yedda Morrison is. After the reading, when she did begin to explain a little more about her work, she was still very good at keeping herself out of her explanation. For example, when she was talking about the theme of nature, she said it was very important to her work, as opposed to simply saying that it was very important to her. While it may not seem like much, it makes a big difference. A lot of people have preconceived negative opinions toward environmentalists, so by saying that nature is important to her work, she was able to talk about her art without being dismissed as “just another environmentalist.”
Although Morrison did get straight to the reading, that doesn’t mean that she wasn’t interested in the performance aspect of the reading. Throughout the reading, Morrison employed many interesting theatrical techniques. The first thing she did was make sure that the lights were out, except for the one that was on her. The combination of the darkness in the room and her soft speaking voice allowed the audience to be extremely comfortable. In another segment of the reading, Morrison briefly put on a see-through hood, which brought a bizarre and interesting element to the reading. This is also the part of the reading in which she sang one of her works. Shortly after this, she read a work of hers that was very sound-oriented, and it was interesting to hear her make the sounds of various birds as she was reading. For the finale, four volunteers were introduced to read from her erasure poem, which was composed entirely of text from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Each voice read a different part of the poem, and they all came in at different times until they were reading the separate parts simultaneously, creating an interesting layer effect which was eerie to listen to.
After the reading, Morrison was very willing to take questions from the audience. She also showcased some more of her artwork at this point, which was an interesting treat for the audience members who came only expecting a reading. The casual and open-ended nature of this Q and A segment of the show was a nice way of wrapping up this experience.
Overall, Yedda Morrison put on a fantastic show.