Rudy Fransisco: Spoken Word Poet

Introduction: Rudy Fransisco enters us into a new vision of poetry known as spoken word. Spoken word is performance based poetry preformed to an audience. Rudy Fransisco has proven to be extremely successful with spoken word from his many achievements like winning the 2010 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion. His poems are moving, funny, honest, and sometimes controversial. We see this in his poem “Adrenaline Rush” were he states:

“It must be nice to feel so safe you have to invent new ways to put yourself in danger.”

This poem itself exhibits honesty by calling upon people and their need to seek an adrenaline rush. However, Rudy compares that with his own life and examines how this rush is something he obtains everyday without even looking for it. Later in this poem Fransisco states:

“He was the kind of man to bring a gun to a food fight”

This line is how Fransisco incorporates some controversial topics into his poems. This line is referring to a police officer, and sheds light on the interaction between police officers and African Americans. Now although not all of his poems follow this same style it is often incorporated into many of his poems.

“Complainers”:

“Complainers” by Rudy Fransisco examines peoples inability to appreciate what they have, and in turn always complain. He begins the poem by descrbing people who out of anyone deserve the right to complain like a man who had to “amputate his own arm with a pocket knife”,yet they dont because they know it could be so much worse. He then points out all of the little things that people complain about, and how they are so insufficient to everthing else going on in the world.

“To The Girl Who Works At Starbucks”:

“To The Girl Who Works At Starbucks” examines Fransisco’s encounter with love. This poem describes the raw, awkward, and overbearing way that love takes over someone. Through this poem he describes his encounter with a woman that he loves, and how that love took over his life and was a journey that he compares to learning how to ride a bike, “scared, reckless with no training wheels or elbow pads so my scars can tell the story”.

“When the Water is Gone”:

This poem “When the Water is Gone” examines the California drought, and begs the question of what will happen when all of the water runs out? Fransisco begins by describing the best moments of summer from slip-n-slides to running through the splinklers. As a child it was as if water for these activites were endless, but as Fransisco grew older he became aware that is not the case.

“Adrenaline Rush”:

“Adrenaline Rush” describes certain peoples desire to seek an adrenaline rush from something like skydiving or bungee jumping. However, Fransisco’s form of an adrenaline rush is something he feels everyday being an African American in society. He states how African Americans get this rush every single day and don’t need to go out creating new ways that make them feel unsafe.

“Rifle”:

“Rifle” sheds light on how weapons can be transformed from harful to harmonious. This poem also examines masculinity, and how men are afraid to be vulnerable. They attempt to be masculine by becoming weapons themselves.

Close Reading of “Adrenaline Rush”:

This poem begins with Fransisco describing volcano surfing which is when “an individual rides down an active volcano with nothing more than a wooden board”. He uses this at the beginning of the poem to give us some clarity on how people get an adrenaline rush. For some people, it might be skydiving or bungee jumping, but I like how he incorporated volcano surfing as an example. While skydiving is a more mainstream way to get that adrenaline rush and something many people have done before, his example of volcano surfing shows how people are actively trying to find something to push them farther into scarier and more uncomfortable positions. Volcano surfing is something that we don’t hear about often, and someone who does it obviously lives for the moments that scare them.

Fransisco then makes the statement “it must be nice to feel so safe that you have to find new ways to put yourself in danger. It is evident at this point that there is a tonal shift happening. Instead of being a poem about seeking adventure we begin to understand that this poem has a much deeper meaning behind it. Following this line Fransisco begins to describe the time he had an adrenaline rush when he first began driving. He was pulled over by a police officer, and the adrenaline rush he got from it was fear that he might not make it home that night because it is evident of the racial discrimination of black men by police officers. Fransisco tries to convey the magnitude of how scared he feels being a black man in today’s society, and states “ being black is one of the most extreme sports in America” showing that finding ways to scare yourself isn’t something that he desires to do because him just living in America is scary enough. There is no need to seek new ways to scare himself because “the new ones have been working for decades”.

Through this poem Fransisco does a beautiful job at opening peoples eyes. While some people are searching for this fulfillment out of doing what scares them and pushing themselves to their limits, he examines he has no need to do that because that is how he lives everyday. This poem examines racial discrimination and how in turn that affects what we do. While white Americans feel that they need to seek danger African Americans are hiding so that they don’t run into it.

Comparing Rudy Fransisco with Audre Lorde:

Although these poets have some differences I feel that there are actually some similarities that tie them both together. Both of them share a commonlity when it comes to overall content. Both poets incorporate their racial identity into their poem. Sometimes it is very evident and the overall message involves race, while other times it is just a small hint. In Rudy Francisco’s case in “Adrenaline Rush” he describes himself as an African American, and shows how that affects him which is his inspiration for that poem. Similarly in “Who Said It Was Simple” by Audre Lorde she examines how her being an African American affects her in American society. However, she also incorporates how being a female as well affects her in society.

These poets do differ when it comes to the structure of the poem. Audre Lorde’s poem are typical short written poem. Fransisco’s however are spoken word poems. These differ in that spoken word poems are meant to be performed while written poems were meant to be read. This difference is more common because of the time. Spoken Word Poetry didn’t become very popular until recently. During Audre Lorde’s time it hadn’t developed into what it is today yet.

When it comes to the tone of the poets I feel they are very similar. In “Who Said It Was Simple” Lorde begins with “there are so many roots to the tree of anger”. Right from the beginning you can already tell there is an emotional tone that continues to be carried through the poem. Lorde seems very annoyed by her current situation being a black women in society which is evident through her emotional tone that she carries throughout this entire poem. Fransisco, similarly, has an emotional tone in the poem “Adrenaline Rush”. However, it doesn’t begin like this. In the beginning it seems to be more of a playful tone as he is descrbing volcano sliding, but we see that this isn’t the case when the tone switches in the line “it must be nice to feel so safe you have to invent new ways to put yourself in danger.” This is where he begins to pick up the emotional tone and we begin to notice that the beginning of the poem about volcano sliding was more of a setup to describe how annoyed he is with how other people need to seek danger. He also carries this almost jealous tone that he can’t have that for himself. Although these poets have differences I think their personal situations are what connect them together as poets.