Disclaimer: As an acquaintance of Mr. Giron, and Mr. Latimer, and an enthusiast of spoken word I approached this project with an open mind and my intention was to make discoveries.
What is Kinetic Affect? According to the official website it is “just human, real, raw, primal” -Kirk Latimer. “We're not afraid of who we are, of our flaws.” -Gabriel Giron. “We're speaking from the true common denominator. We're all human. Kinetic Affect means coming to terms with who you are.” Kirk Latimer says that Affect is a verb that you can sense and feel, an “emotional motion engine of voice,” and Kinetic Affect is out to Affect people in Southwest Michigan. Gabriel Giron and Kirk Latimer met in April of 2006 as slam competitors. That year they filled two spots on the Kalamazoo Slam team, went to nationals together, and began the dynamic partnership that evolved into Kinetic Affect. Latimer worked as a high school teacher and forensics coach at Portage Central, and Giron was a student at Western Michigan University.
As Kinetic Affect, Giron and Latimer feel partly responsible for what they call the demise of a grassroots spoken word culture in Kalamazoo. “When we were introduced to it,” said Latimer in an interview, “There was a really strong, gritty, dirt-based on the ground poetry group [when the venue changed from Kraftbrau] there started to be a scattering, and the grassroots feel evaporated.” In the same interview Giron brought up veterans of spoken word in Kalamazoo who had been there for years and were leaving as he entered the scene; after two years he and Latimer became veterans and it was then, in part, their responsibility as team members and slam veterans to coach and help continue the community. “It's really up to the people who are in it,” he said, “and when Latimer and I left … we broke the cycle.” Latimer added, “By leaving competition we took some people with us, by accident and then what was left was a disjointed community of poetry.”
The urge to expand and really connect with different kinds of people initially drew Giron and Latimer away from competition. “Something that we do,” Latimer said, “feels so universal. It's that universality that allows us to expand the work that is done on ground level.” Slam struck Giron as “ground level” because of its limited bar scene audience, score, and gimmicky nature. Giron said, “[Slam] is a gimmick to get people to buy into poetry We've taken, in essence what [Slam originator] Mr. [Mark]Smith wanted. We get people to buy in.”
Latimer and Giron are interested in reinventing that community of poetry, and bringing it back together. Kalamazoo College Writer in Residence Di Seuss says of Kinetic Affect, “What I especially admire is how they've consistently connected community service with their writing practice. They have linked the performative with social change, and that is a great example for every writer in Kalamazoo.”
They have established themselves as respected spoken word artists in Kalamazoo, and have begun to give back. The creation of a non profit called Speak It Forward Inc. was a huge step in a process of establishing a strong educational and philanthropic place in Southwest Michigan. They model not only a strong creative partnership, but a phenomenal friendship, for example Latimer and Giron finish each others sentences and half joke about seeing each other more than their respective significant others. As Latimer put it, Kinetic Affect is two men with one voice.
The creative mission, according to Giron on the official website, is to create poetry that, “makes you want to get up out of your seat and cheer,” and to take poetry to another level in order to truly connect with people. Latimer voiced it in an interview as, “really just saying the things that need to be said.” and Giron expanded by saying that, “we talk about a vehicle … to kind of sneak statements in. Our Trojan Horse is spoken word poetry.” What they're sneaking in are not lessons— though they sometimes come across that way with a lot of yelling and declaration in their performance— but moments of truth and self discovery.
Kinetic Affect's mission is to seek out the alternative voices— whoever the alternative voices are— and make the mainstream hear them. Right now, Speak It Forward Inc. is collaborating with Mylestone Project, founded by Sean Washington of Battle Creek, which is aimed at helping families grow together and cope with emotional turmoil. Their collaboration is called the Out Loud Initiative and Latimer and Giron work with youths on expression through the creation and performance of spoken word, Latimer says, “[t]his process is aimed at helping youth find new and effective ways to express themselves to help reduce recidivism.”
Although Kinetic Affect is not is not about slam and competition, it is very important to Latimer and Giron that they were able to come back to Kalamazoo Slam Master Tracey Smith four years later and say, “we have a home [for the Kzoo slam],” because they said, “with out Tracey there wouldn't be a Kinetic Affect.”
Kinetic Affect's version of the gimmick gets people to buy in— the monthly two night shows usually play to a packed house— but they do exclude the democratic element that is intrinsic to Slam poetry. In “The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry:Race, Identity and the Performance of Popular Verse” Slam scholar Susan B.A. Sommers-Willet argues that Slam's emphasis on diversity, inclusion and democracy results in a national “pluralism” among poets. It fosters poetry in unconventional venues and effectively places the audience in the role of critic.
Latimer and Giron may be two men with one voice, and they adamantly express that they are speaking from their own experiences, but they also consciously present and represent an educational model. The role of educator, as Latimer attests to in both an interview and poems is a huge responsibility, with a lot of pressure. Even though they have removed their audience from the active critic role, Kinetic Affect seems consistent in their endeavor to make the alternative voices heard. They are accomplishing that by remaining true to their own voices and also by helping to provide support and space for all different kinds of spoken word.
Sources:
Primary: Interview with Kirk Latimer and Gabriel Giron at 246 Burdick; Material from the official Kinetic Affect Website
Secondary: Interview with Di Seuss; Kinetic Affect live performance at 246 Burdick; Kinetic Affect Poems on You tube; reviews from the Kalamazoo Gazette; “The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry: Race, Identity and the Performance of Popular Verse in America” by Susan B.A. Somers-Willet
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