Spoken Word at SIUW

There’s been a lot of talk about memory, storytelling and history/herstory at the conference this week. For the most part, the history we learn is from the colonial perspective where marginalized people of all types - whether it be class, race, gender...take your pick - memory and history is lost. It’s often undocumented or if it’s captured at all, it’s in nontraditional ways - there aren't a lot of publishers who told the other side of the story so it makes it that much harder to research, and add to school curriculum.

I was reminded this week that art preserves our cultural memory and documents history in a way that academia and traditional means of media and textbooks won’t ever capture. I’m reminded of the importance of artists like Tupac Shakur whose work is about the young African-American experience in California in the 90s - there is no history book that covers that material at all. If we did hear about it - it was through newspaper articles written probably by white people - it wasn’t the authentic voice of the man who actually lived the experiences. So many silent voices it's almost deafening...

This week we’ve been fortunate to have been exposed to several women and trans women spoken word artists and poets. The true intersectionality of the artists and their pieces have connected the dots for me in many ways. Their art has made me think, feel, cry, laugh, cheer and empathize with the struggles women are facing every single day.

Shanara Sanders started our conference off with a big introduction of how we need to honour the work women do before and after traditional hours of work and her own lived experience as a black woman. Her call and answer piece was inclusive and I felt part of her story - plus it gave me the outlet to sing which has become an important part of my life since going to musical theatre singalong every week since March. Music is cathartic and singing together makes me feel good.


Jade Martinez  - Queer, trans femme, First Gen Pilipino-American, parent LA based poet and activist took to the front of the room as delivered a powerful poem about her 4 year old daughter Alaizah - and how as a child she is already beating back the socialized gender norms of the patriarchy and becoming its slayer. She then brought the house down in her piece about transphobia. The most powerful line I remember “it’s no coincidence how ‘manslaughter’ and ‘man’s laughter’ is essentially the same exact word.” 

Please see her work at jadephoenixpoetry.com

Laura Sermeno - a poet from East LA and alumni of UCLA, about to move to Chicago read us poems about her goodbye to Los Angeles (she was moving soon) and her ownership of her body.

Our final artist was Elyse Cizek, who told us that she moved to LA to pursue a modelling career. She read us a piece that she wrote a few days ago called “Office Girl” centering on her experience of being the office girl at her father’s worksite. Her experience of being demeaned, harassed, and belittled showed her strength of character and resilience to not let men define her or determine her path in life. I can't wait to check out her first published work Nudity.
 
Powerful stuff. It’s no surprise that we connect with these artists because I like to think that the cadence of their words and our heartbeats follow the same tempo.

#SIUW2016