When love arrived: Phil Kaye and Sarah Kay enchant Manila fans

It was a warm Sunday night, with the buildings of Makati mostly bereft of light, when some two hundred people trooped to a nondescript building to watch two poets share their souls.

Phil Kaye and Sarah Kay, spoken word poets of Project V.O.I.C.E., held their first show Sunday night in iAcademy in Makati to a full house. Inviting the audience to “trespass” into their souls, Kay and Kaye, a duo of poets who perform both individually and together, performed some of the most iconic poems in their repertoire.

And then some.

Starting with “Montauk,” Sarah Kay’s poem about growing up in New York and spending summers in a beach on Long Island, all the way to “When Love Arrives,” a poem about giving and taking a chance on love, probably the most famous of the duo’s poems, Kay and Kaye did not disappoint. The two offered up witty banter and slipped Philippine references into their poems, all while looking at once both indestructible and vulnerable.





That, it seems, is the biggest draw of spoken word poetry, the twin promise of somebody mirroring something you have only begun to discover within yourself, or perhaps that same somebody finding a name for an emotion or a feeling that you find hard to articulate, let alone have the courage to speak about.

And in this art, Kay and Kaye are undoubtedly masters. The two have been performing together for years now, after meeting in college, where they soon realized a great many coincidences between the two of them, including shared Japanese-Jewish heritage, summer camp and even siblings who share the same name.

WATCH: Phil Kaye and Sarah Kay’s Origin Story

Through their organization Project V.O.I.C.E. (Vocal Outreach Into Creative Expression,) Kaye and Kay have traveled all over the United States and the world, sharing their stories while encouraging self expression in the youth by conducting workshops and shows.

To the uninitiated, spoken word poetry might be unusual, even unnecessarily confrontational—emotions almost always run high. But Project V.O.I.C.E.’s sold out March 1 and 2 shows in Makati and Quezon City shows the Philippines is more than ready for this kind of art form.

The audience breathed and sighed and laughed almost as one, with some even reciting the poems that, overtime, have made the two shine brightly in an age when spoken word poets have slowly conquered a small but significant part of YouTube. In fact, so welcomed by the Filipino fans were Phil and Sarah that their second show, with over a thousand attendees, was the biggest yet for the duo.

“All I got is my soul, and somebody told me that that is poetry,” Sarah intones in their first poem for both nights, a sort of introduction to the idea of poetry listened to instead of read. Phil and Sarah opened their hearts to their Filipino fans, and we, trespassers, were more than grateful. — BM, GMA News

Project VOICE Live in Manila was made possible by members of Words Anonymous, a group of local spoken word artists who organized the event.