To hear such powerful words in such a strong voice come from the tiny body was absolutely amazing. Today, I had the pleasure of being part of the audience to which Gabriele Garcia Medina delivered several of her lengthy, yet heartfelt poems. When you first see Gabriele, you would never think that Inside the small body Lies such power and self-confidence. She captivates her audience, makes them laugh, cry and think from deep within themselves and in the end leaves them wanting to hear more of what she has to say.
Gabriele gives you a bit of background before reciting any poems so that you can understand a bit more about who she is and her point of view while listening to the poem she is reciting. According to Gabrielle, her family left Cuba in 1989 and moved to London. At the age of ten and on one of her first field trips, to a soup kitchen, Gabriele realized that there were people who didn’t have food or homes. This brought her to tears and the only way she was able to soothe her soul and ease the tears was to express her feelings In the form of poetry.
Her family embraced the retentive gift and encouraged her to keep writing. This was the start of the young woman’s career and a chance to let begin touching the lives of others through her words. Gabriele has two different ways in which she writes her poetry. One is a structured format in which she is hired by an organization given a theme, time and money. Though Gabriele has the freedom to write the poem in her own creative way, the theme and idea behind it must follow the guideline that the company which she was hired by provided.
The other way Gabriele comes up with her ideas for poems re through her day-to-day interactions with others. According to Gabriele, every time she comes In contact with a person she knows that It’s a potential poem. Things that most people consider normal daily activities, Gabriele turns Into poetry. Whether It Is a bad day or a trip to the mall, for Gabriele It’s a way to tell a story that can potentially touch someone’s life or change their views, Including her own.
Gabriel poems are quite lengthy, approximately 4 to 6 minutes in length. She memorizes them by rehearsing -standing in a mirror reciting them over, and over, ND over again until the words are etched into her mind and heart. Even though she has performed before hundreds of audiences, Gabriele still gets nervous before going on stage. To keep her nerves in check, Gabriele meditates for a minute and reminds herself that what she has to say is meaningful and positive.
This helps her memorize her thoughts, relax and put on a great show that seems very natural. Since there are a lot of people that write, but not all have the pleasure of getting on stage to share their thoughts with an audience Gabriele embraces the opportunity and looks at It as an honor. According to Gabriele, she wants to Inspire people to feel great and empowered about themselves and their lives and encourage them to be positive and do positive things.
Because Gabriele has worked hard and stayed focused, her writing and thing that she dislikes most about all of the traveling to different venues to perform is that she never really gets a chance to connect with the audience and members of the community, there is no time for that with her hectic schedule. Even though she is a wonderful performer, she still has “off “days when she is going through something ND would rather be locked away in her room thinking while burning a candle than putting on a show.
Because her career has taken off so quickly, she realized that she must always be a “performer” and put on the best possible show that she can for her audience. According to Gabriele, the thing she likes most about what she does is meeting people all over the world and having the opportunity to put empowering ideas in their heads. Gabriele hopes that through her writings and performances, she puts larger than life ideas into her audiences’ heads and leaves them with the feeling of mating to do big things that will change lives, or maybe even the world.
Gabriele Garcia Medina, spoken word poet, strong woman, full of knowledge, inspires others with her thoughts, captivates them with her words, sure of who she is and isn’t afraid to express her thoughts in the form of poetry on a stage in front of thousands. I had the pleasure of meeting her and seeing her show, I may forget her name over time; but her words are something that have touched my heart forever and some of them are etched in my mind.