Abstract
As a coach of a Speech and Debate Team at Virginia Union University, an HBCU located in Richmond, Virginia, I am training students to compete for both state and national competitions, including The Ethics Bowl (state of Virginia), with this year’s topic Ethics and Digital Media, and the HBCU National Championship, which includes, outside of classic debates, categories that include poetry interpretation, poetry slam, dramatic interpretation, prose interpretation, informative, and persuasive speaking. These categories highlight the power of the humanities delivered through the spoken word— and the power of listening to those words. This has increased interest in the humanities at Virginia Union since I began the program here, as students gain confidence and experience in speaking and debating on issues across the humanities, Literature and especially poetry is meant to be heard, so students not only gain experience emphasizing how to read poetry that will have an impact on listeners, whether they are reading and interpreting published poetry or writing and reading their own poems, or in prose and dramatic interpretation as a way to highlight significant passages or scenes from literary works. This paper highlights the competitions by Virginia Union University students in both the VFIC (Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges in The Ethics Bowl on Ethics and Digital Media against PWI’s in January 2023 and their participation in the various categories in the HBCU National Championship, including literary interpretation, to emphasize speaking and listening are crucial skills and a form of knowledge in the humanities.
Presenters
Timothy WenzellProfessor of English, Department of Humanities, Virginia Union University, Richmond, Virginia, Virginia, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Literature, Interpretation of poetry, Speaking, Listening, Debating
