Jason Simon-Bierenbaum '11 is the president of VOCAL, the club that organizes the Brandeis Open Mic Series. In addition, VOCAL cooperates with theater groups on campus and engages in outreach to youth in the community.JustArts: What's your personal poetry style?

Jason Simon-Bierenbaum: I'm trying to develop a style that pulls equally from spoken word and more traditional "academic/page" poetry. I want to create poems that hold their own on stage and on paper, with different nuances in each version that can be enjoyed and understood upon first read, but that open up more options. While I've done some work in forms such as triptychs, sestinas and pantoum, most of my poems are free verse, often using stories to convey ideas. [I am a] big fan of extended metaphor.

JA: What kinds of themes do you usually deal with?

JSB: Bit of everything. Rarely overly political anymore, but always with meaning. Praising and humanizing the misunderstood or under appreciated, speaking up for the hushed, exploring my old town and themes of conformity and assimilation.

JA: When you write poetry, do you write with your performance in mind, or does that come after the poem is already written?

JSB: Performance is rarely thought about until after. Some poems are just asking to be performed, but normally I don't even think about that until I'm a few drafts into the work. When I start memorizing, I really hear over and over how it sounds and works, and then it gets edited more that way.

JA: Do you practice your performances a lot?

JSB: Yes and no. I memorize a poem, then go over it a few times [a] day for the next week, and then I pretty much have it down pat, but if I have a big performance, I will practice it a lot more going into that.

JA: And then when you're actually performing, do you find that it differs from what you've rehearsed?

JSB: Yes. Sometimes I mess up and don't do it as well as practiced, but normally the energy of the audience and the feel of being center stage pushes me to a new level.

JA: What does performance of a poem add to the words on the page?

JSB: You're able to connect with the audience and make them experience the poem. It also can create new interpretations, help get the emotions across, and make poetry fun for people who didn't think that line breaks or metaphors or other things of the sort are interesting.

JA: What's it like to work with the other members of a slam team on poetry? How does the teamwork element contribute to yours and others' poetry skills?

JSB: It's a blast. Last year we only ended up having two group pieces, but that is still one of the most fun poems to ever perform. In practices it's great to have a diverse group of poets there to give feedback and critique on writing and performance. This also helped develop our understandings of each other, team bonding, and of course overall skills.

JA: BOMS often hosts outside poets at their events-could you talk a little about the Boston slam poetry scene?

JSB: Some of the best writing I've ever seen in a spoken word scene. Amazing, amazing writers.

JA: Do other colleges have clubs or events similar to BOMS and VOCAL?

JSB: Emerson College and Hampshire College both sent teams to CUPSI last year. ... Berklee College of Music has a pick up team for the regional competition and are trying to put together a team this year. Boston University and Harvard have poetry club. Mass Art and Northeastern are developing open mics. I'm sure there's probably other schools with clubs. However, I don't know of other poetry clubs who do as many different things as we do, or have the same emphasis on community involvement through poetry.