Just wanted to weigh on this debate from Campus Progress. I'm an intern here and was initially skeptical of the spoken word event; having never experienced it outside of stereotypes and jokes.
But the event was very good, and for those of you worried about money, the artists didn't get paid, they volunteered because they care about their art, youth and progressive politics. It didn't cost us that much, and besides encouraging networking, it allowed us here at CP.org to reach out to a new audience and (to be frank) expand our contact database of young progressives. You can't organize a progressive movement without getting people involved.
But intellectually, we should all be supporting progressive art and culture. This kind of public expression is important to a healthy society and enshrines the kinds of values we should support as progressives.
I went with a good friend to Campus Progress' "Spoken Word: A Vehicle for Progressive Change" last night at their D.C. office.
It was glorious.
I'm a veteran of my old local spoken word scene back in PA, but I'd been woefully performance-poetry-free for more than a year since I moved to D.C. and the rigors of a soul-deadening law school education came a-knockin. This event certainly got my creative juices flowing again. The event featured the verbal stylings of Al Letson, Aya de Leon, Harlym 125, and Kelly Ken-Yie Tsai. They all had a very unique style to their poetry.
Al Letson had several very personal poems, including one about his daughter, entitled "Venus."
For Aya de Leon, she spoke of feminism and foreign policy wrapped into one when she performed a heartwrenching poem about the U.S. colonial island of Vieques, anthropomorphized into a young girl with an abusive step-father. She also performed a biting and hilarious poem extolling the sexiness of "the sensitive man."
Harlym 125, a Brandeis University Dean during the day (we were all surprised), had the audience on the edge of their seats (and standing) with his explosive poems on both his personal life in Harlem and larger issues of race and class in American society.
Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai (a.k.a. Yellowgurl) was in top form last night, her most memorable poem being one about Hurricane Katrina, originally commissioned for a relief fundraiser. She also reflected on her childhood Chinese language lesson books, and the perfect, idealized chinese children illustrated therein, in her poem "Little Red Books."
Several friends and I were hoping there would be an open mic afterward, but no such luck, which is a shame, because I know there were many local performance poets in the audience; if anything gets you in the mood to go up and perform, it's seeing others do the same. I hope for future events Campus Progress will be more participatory in its planning, but for the main event, CP really came through (CP staff took photos and video, and I hope both will be on the site soon). These performers are at the top of their games, and I was beyond impressed.
Now here comes your job: Help these poets out! Invite one (or all of them!) to your campus, and get as much stipend from student government as you can. It's hard to make ends meet as an artist of any stripe in our economy, and we each have a responsibility to support the arts whenever we can. Here's their contact info:
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But the event was very good, and for those of you worried about money, the artists didn't get paid, they volunteered because they care about their art, youth and progressive politics. It didn't cost us that much, and besides encouraging networking, it allowed us here at CP.org to reach out to a new audience and (to be frank) expand our contact database of young progressives. You can't organize a progressive movement without getting people involved.
But intellectually, we should all be supporting progressive art and culture. This kind of public expression is important to a healthy society and enshrines the kinds of values we should support as progressives.