One Clap Speech and Debate
One Clap Speech and Debate is a resource for Speech and Debate coaches and competitors. We interview heroes of the Speech and Debate community about the transformative power of the activity and work to provide free and helpful content for Speech and Debate enthusiasts. Lyle Wiley, an English teacher and Speech and Debate Coach in Thermopolis, Wyoming, hosts the show.
One Clap Speech and Debate
Camp One Clap 2, Episode 16: Izzy Garcia's Activist's Guide to the Clapocalypse, Part 3 - POI, A Chaotic Conversation
6:16 - Camp One Clap 2024: Day 16
For notes and details about the episode, check out the website here:
https://www.oneclapspeechanddebate.com/post/camp-one-clap-2-episode-16-izzy-garcia-s-activist-s-guide-to-the-clapocalypse-part-3-poi-a-cha
Are you ready to transform your POI approach from ordinary to extraordinary? Join us at Camp One Clap as Izzy Garcia returns with Part 3 of his Activist's Guide to the Clapocalypse. This time, Izzy dives deep into the world of Program Oral Interpretation (POI), offering invaluable advice on selecting topics that resonate on a personal level and can stir powerful emotional connections. Learn how to enrich your narrative by incorporating diverse voices and counter-perspectives, making your message not just compelling but unforgettable. Whether you’re exploring themes of identity or pressing social issues, Izzy’s insights will guide you in using POI as a mighty tool for advocacy and personal expression.
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Your voice matters!
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Hey campers, what you thought the clapocalypse was over, done with Silent, even Well, you thought wrong. We needed a breather, but we're back. It is episode sweet 16 and Izzy Garcia is here to present part three of his activist guide to the clap apocalypse. I'm your camp director and host of the One Clap Speech and Debate podcast, lyle Wiley here's hoping that Camp One Clap is providing some excitement and helpful content to help kick off another awesome year of speech and debate. Quick reminder check the One Clap socials for today's social media challenge.
Lyle Wiley:Today, coach Izzy Garcia is back with a series for camp. Just in case you missed it, let's learn just a little bit more about Izzy. Cheyenne. South assistant coach Izzy Garcia cares about delivering the best Camp One Clap experience and providing perspective and thoughts about advocacy and speech and debate. National qualifier in original oratory, performer in duo drama, poi and poetry, the newly turned coach Izzy is determined to not only keep you safe in the clapocalypse, but also wants to ignite thinking in the masses about all things speech and debate. Advocacy, education and advocacy in the world of speech and debate is paramount and Izzy is here to help. It's time for Izzy's Activist's Guide to the Clapocalypse.
Izzy Garcia:Part 3, poi A Chaotic Conversation. Hello and welcome to Izzy's Guide to the Clapocalypse. Yes, finally we get into some educational material for your ears to digest and your eyes to vaguely visualize. In this final episode, we are finally talking about POI how to get started and how it also plays a role into advocacy. Don't worry, I'm not getting on a soapbox about advocacy here. Just a slight mention on how it makes you a better poi person. I want to first start this conversation by saying that I do not classify myself as a poi person. I love programs. I think people who do them are supermen.
Izzy Garcia:I'm speaking on this topic because I have done some good research, put my chips in the game and hope that I can teach you a thing or two about the event. Instead of going through each aspect of poi, talking about every section, I'm going to take you through on what you should expect when preparing for poi and some questions you should be asking yourself. First, we're going to go over some initial background work, then molding and structuring the poi and finally some methodology on how to perform poi. First things first. Like any good interpretation, you should be doing a topic that you want to talk about. However, I'm going to expand upon this and say that you should be advocating for something in your performance. I've always chalked up poi as the event that begs you to provide an argument for the audience to absorb. I know that's some weird wording Argument. If we look at the definition of argument, there is the typical understanding of conflict between two people. However, in another context we could see arguing as a way of persuading. When we use performance to persuade, we invoke an emotional connection to the audience to care about the topic that we want to talk about. In college I did a poi on misinformation and used a lot of really good personal examples on how people were tricked into thinking that events that didn't happen happened. A highlight of poi performances is showcasing firsthand how your topic affects people. I want to bring up the concept again of using your voice to your full advantage.
Izzy Garcia:There has been the critique of poi acting as a vehicle to only talk about identity. What I mean is when a poi performers use poi to talk about their identity. Some people believe that this is the surefire way to get the one in the round. Surefire way to get the one in the round. Here are my thoughts on that. Poi is the unique event that allows for multiple stories to come together in one 10-minute length in order to deliver a message. If that message is to talk about a person's identity, that's fine. A lot of the time, people do not have the platform to talk about these issues with their peers, so having to endure some identity pieces for the sake of advocacy is more than okay for me. This is what I'm going to say when it comes to selecting your pieces.
Izzy Garcia:When it comes to poi, you should be talking about something that is important to you. So many individuals that I've talked to when it comes to poi have told me that poi means so much to them that they use poi as a way to find comfort in places that they weren't allowed to, that their voices finally mean something in the world of performance and speech. No matter what you're talking about, whether it's about identity or something else that is super important in this world talk about it, be passionate about it. Make sure it's something you want to do. Some questions you should be asking yourself are what topics are important to me? Will this challenge me? Can I relate to this material? As I mentioned last week, when we're performing so intensely, it's important that we can relate and stomach the material throughout the entire speech season. Okay, that is the final conversation about advocacy here, kinda. However, please remember that in any event, your voice matters. Awkward transition, okay, from the NSDA Unified Manual.
Izzy Garcia:We know that we could use drama, humor, prose and poetry when selecting material. However, one aspect of these selections that I think people miss out on is the concept of perspective and voice. The reason why we want performers to know what they're arguing for is because it helps you narrow down what you should be looking for when it comes to literature. Let's say I wanted to talk about the importance of queer safe spaces. This allows me to look for stories or articles that talk about how safe spaces have played an important role for people in the LGBT plus sphere for years. That perspective is so important because it allows you to have a more precise aim on what to look for. It also opens up the idea of a counter-perspective or counter-voice.
Izzy Garcia:A counter-voice is essentially any material that goes against your argument. I know that sounds completely contradictory to what we're asking you to do in Poi. However, when we introduce a counter-voice to your argument, it allows what you are arguing for to be completely rationalized in your performance. Think about it in the world of interpretation. Every good humor has some drama. Every good drama has some humor. Same principle applies here too. That counter voice also highlights the importance of voice that we need to take into consideration when we're selecting our materials.
Izzy Garcia:In a world of information readily at our fingertips, it is important that you find the right voice for your specific argument. This isn't to say that all voices around your topic don't matter. This is to say that you need to find the right story to tell the story of your argument. How do we effectively do this? I know it sounds a little complicated, but if we call back to the guide, last year, I brought up the idea of plot structure in Poi. If we use plot structure to our advantage when building a Poi, then we can essentially fill in the blanks on where to put the voices in the program. While I did say there are many types of plot structures in which you could use for Poi, I want to say that I personally believe that there is a right one to pick in order to help you assemble the poi as well as help your audience during the performance. The plot structure goes as follows Exposition, inciting incident, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution Just as basic as basic can be. But this is a reminder that just because your plot structure is basic doesn't mean your argument has to be. The wonderful thing about Poi is that once you have the plot structure, you can have so many beautiful voices that bring your program to life.
Izzy Garcia:Another aspect about voice that I want to talk about here is something that I kind of picked up when I was going through Poi and sitting round after round. When selecting pieces and materials for your program, your literature should agree with each other. I know these are not sentient beings that can actually agree with each other, but their stories should flow into each other. When you transition between character, we shouldn't lose the narrative or the story. All of this material should be working together to get everyone to the same place at the end. These voices are fighting for something, so they should be fighting together.
Izzy Garcia:Before we move into how to assemble a poi, some resources that you could use when finding materials are sites like Brooklyn Publishers, play Scripts, dramatist Play Services and so many more. I know drama and humor material is very hard to find in POI, so there are some resources that I hope can help you out. When assembling a POI, the hard work should be done. Selecting material and utilizing plot structure should have guided you on how you should assemble your program. That is the beauty behind knowing what you want to do and knowing how to get there. However, there are some quality of life tips that I can provide here that can at least help you out when assembling programs.
Izzy Garcia:First things first. We need to make sure that our text fits in the book, in your Google Doc or whenever you have decided to produce your poi. Make sure that your page is on landscape and that your text is in columns. I usually prefer two columns because there's an assembly method that goes along with this format, but this is the surefire way to ensure that your text fits in the little black books. Okay, when assembling your materials, make sure that you have all your cuttings and the Google Doc that you've just put together in columns and landscape. Take all of your cuttings and place them in the plot structure. Obviously, however, I don't want you to flood the page with all of your cuttings. Each page that contains two columns should contain two page turns. Visualize the page like it was the book itself.
Izzy Garcia:On the left you have materials that begin and you progress with the material on the right, then you go from there. I know I also find it silly that I'm trying to instruct you on how to physically assemble the book in the right, then you go from there. I know I also find it silly that I'm trying to instruct you on how to physically assemble the book in audio format. Just close your eyes and try to picture it for me. You start on the left and you continue on the right and then you go from there. I know this is like some weird version of meditation that I'm taking you through. Oh okay, open your eyes, got it Good?
Izzy Garcia:Another quality of life tip that I want to talk about when it comes to POI is to utilize a digital folder when assembling your POI. Oh Izzy, that's common sense. Why is this? Another piece of advice? Turn the volume up here when I tell you the amount of times that I have requested performers to show me their poi programs, only for them to look through a field of documents for a half an hour is infinite. You're going to have so many cuttings, so many documents related to your program, and you need to keep them in place, not only for your sanity, but for your coach's sanity as well. Please do us a favor and use a folder If all is lost. Do your research when it comes to physically assembling a poi. There are so many great resources on the interwebs when it comes to splicing, cutting and placing the poi in the book. Even OneClap has some great resources that you can utilize. Remember support your local speech and debate podcast.
Izzy Garcia:Okay, we're on the final part of this crazy conversation when it comes to poi. Thank you for sticking it out with me. You're pretty rad for that. How does one become graceful and animated like any other poi that you may see out there? How do you move and use your book to your full advantage and soar into new heights? I don't know, I just work here. No, in all seriousness, coming up with blocking and movement in your poi is one of the hardest parts of the entire performance. Well, you can argue that every part of poi is the hardest part of poi. That's why I applaud anyone who wants to do it. It's a beast.
Izzy Garcia:One methodology is literal blocking, which was something that I brought up during last year's guide, the idea that you are blocking the exact words that you're saying in the story. Well, that does give you some movement in the program, which is better than nothing. I would challenge you to really think outside the box when it comes to blocking. But how do we do that? How do we get there? My honest advice when it comes to blocking a movement is to literally watch others do it.
Izzy Garcia:This is the perfect opportunity to talk about one of my favorite books that I have read in the past couple years Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. In short talks about ways to gain inspiration and utilize the world around you to be more of an artist. I know left field when we're talking about poi, but I would argue that movement and blocking in any interpretation is an art form that can be learned. And how is that platform learned? It can be learned by quote-unquote stealing. Now, this isn't actually advocating for you to look at other poi performances and literally steal their blocking, but you should be looking at how they're moving, how do they use their book, how are they painting the story right in front of you? The National Institute of Health reported that 65% of the population are visual learners.
Izzy Garcia:When we have this expectation that we should know how to perform or know how to assemble a poi or know how to assemble material, a lot of the time many people just need to be shown how to do it. I can sit here all day and talk your ears off on how to do it, but the best thing to do is to get up there and watch and learn. After you looked at previous poi performances, think about your performance. How could you use your book to your advantage? How could you move? What are your character placements? How are they inspired by what you saw? Now there's a very real reality that you can assemble this poi, know what you're talking about and block it out. No problem. Some people are just wired that way, and if you are, then I give you all the power in the world to do it in the way that is most fitting to you.
Izzy Garcia:This is another instance where I can bring up my other favorite piece of advice here. Do not be afraid to look silly. Do you think that those poi performers just woke up one day and knew exactly how to move or block out a poi? No, these things take time. Experiment, look at yourself in the mirror, ask for help from your peers and from coaches. Don't let your fear of failure or looking silly hold you back from reaching your successes in this event, or any other event for that matter, don't be afraid to look silly. It'll take you farther in the end. Holy crap, we did it. Another episode of information and you have survived in the end. I'm so proud of you.
Izzy Garcia:I want to close here by saying thank you for being here through this conversation. Poi is such a hard event and it's not for the faint of heart. I hope that some people take my advice and do something useful with it. I could honestly stay here for hours and talk about the ins and outs of poi and I still don't think it would be enough to explain it all for you. Watch, learn and try your very best. You can do it. Thank you for turning in to the final episode of Izzy's Guide to the Clapocalypse. I cannot believe that it's just been a few short weeks and we're already at the end of the guide. I hope that this year I was able to provide you some inspiring words, some useful information and a whole lot of fun. One final thanks to Lyle Wiley for giving me the space to yap my little heart out. A final reminder that an avocado is a fruit and that makes guacamole a fruit salad. Thanks for being here and, as always, stay awesome.
Lyle Wiley:Well, thank you so much to Izzy for more of his series at Camp One Clap. Izzy's content has been absolutely excellent and I appreciate all of his hard work to put together such a valuable series for our Camp One Clap 2. What's going on in the Clapocalypse tomorrow? Well, Bailey Patterson and Marcus Viney are back with part two of their two-part series Chronicles from the Crypt. It's going to be creepy, but it's also going to be great. Remember to check those social media challenges on our socials and we'll see you tomorrow. Campers, oh, feel free to tell the mommy your secret. They'll definitely keep it under wraps for camp one clap. This is camp director wiley signing off.