Neil Hilborn at Legends

Famous online for his spoken word poem "OCD" Neil Hilborn came to Appalachian State's campus to perform at Legends. To start off the night Appalachian State's spoken word club Lyric held an open mic night for an hour until it was time for Neil to start at 8 p.m. I brought my camera to this show to give myself more experience at shooting in a darker environment with a moving subject. Neil is a very large advocate for mental health awareness and often speaks about his experiences with his own mental health disorders such as OCD and Bipolar Disorder. He speak emotionally about suicide and how he has handled that himself and how others have effected his life through their experience with suicide and suicidal ideation. Neil began his set with OCD and instantly had the crowd hooked and hanging onto every word. It was so carefully thought out yet so real and emotional. He wasn't exaggerating anything but just allowing for images to be placed in the minds of listeners to fully understand his experience. He continued on with a few more poems while performing very entertaining short stand up comedy sessions between poems while telling stories and trying to find the next one he wanted to read. Towards the end of his set I made my way in front of the front row of seats and sat on the floor to listen to his last poem about bipolar disorder and how it has made him hallucinate when he is up. The picture above is from this poem where he imagines himself being sprawled out on the front of an 18-wheeler after standing in the middle of the road. As I sat there I couldn't help but notice the emotion in his voice and actions and that he truly meant and experienced every word he said. This was an extremely memorable performance and I am so luck to have seen and spoken with Neil Hilborn.