You'll Hear Much Over the Decades From Poet/Performer Noah St. John

Noah St. John, 15, of Berkeley, California finds himself in the viral online spotlight these days thanks to a video of his winning performance at NPR's Snap Judgement.  It's a tour de force.

Snap Judgement is an NPR podcast in which people tell stories, recite poetry or otherwise provide some great verbal narrative, often to a musical score. St. John won a recent Snap Judgement contest with his performance, called "The Last Mile"  

Noah St. John in performance

In the video, he talks about a trip in the family car. That's all I'll tell you know. It's absolutely riveting.

You might have already seen the video. It's all over Facebook and in the blogosphere.  I often avoid posting stuff that's already been widely seen, but in this case it's worth putting it out there for even more attention.

I love the emotional roller coaster St. John puts you on. The video has really been justifiably embraced by a variety of gay blogs and media sources. But the fact that his parents are two moms really are besides the point in the monologue. On one hand, that represents an advance in gay equality. On the other hand, it's as it should be.

Acccording to Meredith May, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, St. John certainly has the right pedigree for his performance, given that his parents are a novelist and a rhetorical expert.

He's previously won awards for spoken word contests and poetry slams. He says he's not sure if he wants to develop a career as a writer, actor, director or all three.

In any event, he'll do well. At 15, his career is certainly off to a rousing start.

Before you click "Play" on this video, I have to issue a Kleenex alert: You will need the tissues as you surely get emotional watching his powerful performance. Here it is: