 for tonight, but it must be a very big Independence Day or whatever it's called, a big one coming so people must be out shopping, but also it's often, you know, it is a bit nerve-wracking a day before, so an event is free and open. Often, this is then where people decide, you know, I better should, you know, get my things in order. So I wish we had more people here, normally actually we do, but we are also live streaming and this event is going to be on HowlRound, which is a national platform, so actually the audience is much bigger than just the one here in the room and we would like to thank again you all, the artists for coming here really. It's, nothing is more important to us than that we are in a dialogue, you know, as people create art or write words and perform them. This is what we do here nationally and internationally and thanks to the American Poetry Cafe and Daniel, especially for helping us to put this together, it came out of a conversation and it would not have happened without you. So thank you so much and I think it is important that we as organizations collaborate and do things not just in our own places and so everybody who comes to us and normally that's theater, theater was a dialogue and a dramatic actually, you know, their poets also are here, they are represented after all. They were the New York poets who created the Off-Off-Broadway movement, post-probably they were the very first one to start what we now think is a given fact, but the people like the Franco-Harris and others were the one who said, you know, we just get people together, we do our own thing, no one's going to care anyway, so we do poems and then they also did play, so this is the very, very center of it and the great history of the Living Theatre with Judas Molina and Julian Bach, if you look at their work, how closely it was related to the poets, how many friends they had, how many poets performed with them, plays they did, it shows the significance of it and hopefully this is a little connection to that world. My name is Frank Henshka, I'm the director here of the Siegel Theatre Center and I would like to thank everybody on the team, Rebecca and Yuchen and Veronica, Michael and Brett up there for the live streaming and Bella for making this evening happen and for creating the programs. We bridge academia and professional theater, international and American theater here and this is actually the opening of our season, we had a big film festival, there's 40 films from five continents and 20 countries but this is officially the opening and we thought it is a very important thing that's what we put it here after this election and everything we experience, we feel there's a need and we have to hear voices and we also have to give a space for it so thank you for coming but also thank you for thinking about what to do tonight and preparing and giving us your contribution. It shouldn't be longer than 80, 70, 80, 90 minutes, poets will perform then there will be panel discussion or discussion with you all here in the room, a little reception afterwards and I hope you, we all will understand a bit more about the meaning of what it means to be alive and to be on this world and how to contribute and change things so we are part of the change we want to see. If you have a cell phone now is the time just to take it out and take it off also the power's best is to have completely power off so it doesn't interfere with the mic we are recording so take the mic, you can take it off or put it back on or take them. This one and now I would like to ask Daniel to say a few words, he's the director of that great cafe, the poets cafe, the American poets cafe and we have such respect for you and your work and the betting average of what you do there is just stunning and I really also would like to say in the name of the city of New York and the city university and everybody here how much we appreciate that how much we respect it and what a series and great contribution it is to the cultural life in the city. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. We are very grateful to the Graduate Center and to Frank and Rebecca and all of the staff here for welcoming us. It's great to be back on this stage as well. I myself and some of our poets have been here previously for a number of events including some of the no passport conference events that have been hosted here. So my name is Daniel Gallin, I'm the director of the New York and poets cafe and the cafe since its inception has focused on the use of spoken word to address topics of political, social and economic relevance and to explore the day-to-day lives of poets. We appreciate poetry in all of its forms as a literary but also as a spoken and a performative and even as a competitive form since the mid 80s late 80s we've been increasingly associated with an art form known as slam poetry which is a particular subset of performance poetry that involves competition between poets who write short pieces that tend to be percussive tend to be socially and politically relevant and tend to be personally and emotionally insightful as well. So today you and I as well are all fortunate to hear from six of the really most accomplished dynamic and exciting performance poets that the cafe has the honor of working with and all of these poets you're going to hear from today they're accomplished writers, they're accomplished performers, they're accomplished competitors, they're also educators and I think that's an important element to the discourse that we're engaging in tonight and a discourse that runs through all of the programs that our organization offers because we use poetry for entertainment for commentary but also to engage minds of all ages to engage students in the civic process in the political process. We as an organization are non-partisan but our poets are encouraged to be very partisan very outspoken very declarative and very emotive from the time they get on our stage to the time they're touring through the city through the country and also when they're educating younger artists and helping people define their performative voices. So tonight you're going to hear from six fantastic poets and after each of them reads or performs a couple of poems then we're going to have a talk back a discussion with Frank and the artists and we'll get to talk a little bit about what it is that informs and inspires the poetry that keeps our artists and our audiences engaged and how our poets address the most pressing political economic and social topics of our time. So first up I'm going to introduce Chanel Gabriel who's a singer poet and powerful advocate for Lupus. Chanel was born and raised in Brooklyn. She's widely known for both opening and featuring on HBO's Deaf Poetry Jam alongside Jill Scott and DMX and has shared the stage with artists such as Talib Quelli, Nas and more. Chanel was spotlighted on the Rachel Ray Show, Huffington Post by the NFL and Women's Health Magazine. She's narrated audio books and she's presently the program director at Urban Word NYC which is a youth focused organization that we work with on poetry slam and education programs often. So I'm very proud to welcome to the mic Chanel Gabriel. Good afternoon good evening good evening everyone all right just so you know I'm speaking on behalf of us I know it's not many of us in here because we are all trying to weather the storm both outside in the world and politically so but um but if you like anything you hear please feel free to make noise feel free to feel encouraged to be able to like let us know that okay um this is not a lecture um this is a shared experience um so the first piece I'm going to share with you all um just have a couple minutes um so I was trying to think of what I could do today and one of the big things thinking about I guess a post Obama America um was one of the most interesting things is I think that they said that Obama was one of he um what's the word goodness he um pulled a lot of people off of death row and reversed a lot of sentences um for nonviolent crimes and um situations of that nature and um thinking about mass incarceration and how um the moment Trump got elected the stocks to the prisons went up as opposed to everything else um mass incarceration in America is a real thing and um thinking about that I have this uh strong poem rap thing that I kind of did and I feel like I want to share that with you all I have a new piece I'm going to share with you all but I figure I'll start with this um and I'll slow it down just to hear the words today's noose is tied by the boys in blue police get promoted by demoting you he's gas because he's got power he's never had an educated and armed he does what he's told and friskin black boys seems to be the way to go make them run their pockets so the public gets to show them the rest of them for the nickel bag they force them to expose but don't check the wall street exec sniffing blows see if brown skin maybe if brown skin matched the color of cocaine maybe sentencing would change since statistically they say whites get charged less I remember Paris Hilton got away because it wasn't her purse that had the coke because she borrowed it for the day see once they get you in the system you become the system slave read what the entire 13th amendment says it ends slavery except if you commit a crime and black folk do in the time can't trust the system that don't trust you can't trust laws that just protect the few can't let them tell you that you ain't divine they all lie they ain't colorblind can't trust the system that don't trust you can't trust laws that made the break you can't have a plight that's undefined they all lie they ain't colorblind the balance is off the talent is lost they can't see the skin color of the victims of brutality see we're living in the world it's little different from back when Rosa Park stayed in her seat the cops got Timothy and Cincinnati Catherine and ATL Robert out in Detroit Eric Ghana Sean Bell equality is a hard sell when corporate crooks don't ever see a jail when most of these people trying to make bail when most of my brother's trying to make bail while police plant and drugs and live to try to justify the hate they feel inside they don't even know what stems from generations when they blatantly showed it we gotta expose it Obama can't save you locally and globally expose the truth we need to save our youth from being criminalized because we need to save our youth from being criminalized because color is only bad when it's criminalized can't trust the system that don't trust you can't trust laws that just protect the few can't let them tell you that you ain't divine they all lie they ain't colorblind can't trust the system that don't trust you can't trust laws that just protect the few can't let them tell you that you ain't divine they all lie they ain't colorblind thank you don't worry i turned the phone radio off um all right so yeah that um that piece i wrote and um it's funny it's um it's on my second album and um there's all this background things i had to think of and i ended up actually um going to my sister's school because i had this idea of having kids on the track saying yeah like yeah and i had to explain it to them because i was like i'm not just gonna use them as a soundbite i said so what do you think so what do you think is something that makes you different from everybody else and what kids said i like you know some cartoon another kid i like that cartoon too and i was like okay well you thought that made you different but there's so much a like about all of us right but what do you think a lot of people that think because you like think it was he said he like if they're really small he said uh not dora um doc Mcstuffins i said what do you think if somebody says because you like doc Mcstuffins you're like they shouldn't play with you that's terrible and then we try to explain that but it's such a very simple concept and when you look at um our society and look at the um the way that the laws that are coming in place are unfolding um it's actually not it should be easier um than it is but all right so i um i was like playing with this piece and i really wanted to try to share it so you guys are like the first to hear this okay so go easy on me so i thinking about this i remember high-fiving strangers car horns blaring like emancipation union square park was an impromptu block party celebration even chess players took a break from their money making deliberation to join the jubilation see obama became president of our nation it was like we spent years trying to double dutch and the world stopped trying to choke us with the ropes society finally moved in sync a lot of black men to jump in praise god he had rhythm steps quicken when congress sped up and slowed down their pace but it was great to see some remnants of sisset of sanity in the oval office amidst the pride of the era we made the error of not thinking what's next someone jumping in that we didn't expect forget jumping in this person stole the rope treated like this was a game and i know manhunt when i see it everything all fun and laughter someone loses an eye or a constitution or the progress that took eight years to build am i the only one filled with trepidation when i crack open the newspaper and i'm the only one am i the only one afraid am i the only one who doesn't know how to explain to a generation who never had to choose the lesser of two evils who didn't know what it's like to have candidates with scandals with multiple wives how do we explain democracy when we have empty seats meant for checks and balances when only people of color politicians consider americans have to be spray tan what do i say to make the orange boogeyman go away to comfort those who know that things can and will get worse before they change our president with his shovel of a tongue digging the graves of those who can no longer migrate to keep their families safe what do i say to comfort the child on the train afraid her mom will be sent away well the dreamer's awakened to ice chipping away at their future appeals ripping healthcare away at the seams how do i teach them to close their eyes count from one to five to breathe to believe it can't get any worse to breathe to believe your legacy still has birth to breathe to be comforted by the fact that this isn't the last time you'll have to be your own president and it sure isn't the first thank you she got chenelle gave you all and you know as chenelle was was pointing out in her poetry um spoken word is a very effective way to engage younger people students those who might be disaffected by traditional academic pursuits or might not always find an obvious way to engage in the civic process or the electoral process spoken word can be a good a good way and chenelle certainly in her work with urban word has helped to demonstrate ways in which this art form can be used to inspire and energize and engage younger students and artists next up i'm going to introduce advocate of words who is an award winning performance poet published author and teaching artist he's a brio award winner he received a tayino image award with the group el grito de puetas his work has been featured recovered by pbs the la times cnn fox news and univision he's performed and lectured at princeton lincoln center georgia and university and of course the new yoreken and he's the creator of hip hop poetry and poetry defined which are both online resources for performance poets so without further ado let me call the stage advocate of words maybe i smoke too much maybe i wrote too much or maybe i spoke too much but you're i'm so gone like election votes in the u s survey like liberty in the media in the u s survey yo i'm so gone like never unlike niberu and out of space slowly getting next to you i'm so gone like truth in the media like chivalry ladies i see how they treat in you i'm so gone like my breath when i rhyme better yet like features to poets who don't show up on time i'm so gone to always trying to make amends when most homicides are committed by family and friends yo i'm so gone i got a one-way ticket to the moon apollo 11 i'm gonna see if they really did it i'm so gone reptilians can have the planet but i'm not leaving quietly my exit will be dramatic i'm so gone i'm taking everything i got receipts for billy joe cd form and grill i'm ex-girlfriend's kid seesaw yo i'm so gone like our species are out there hanky panky like last season with a rodent yankees like i'm so gone like the bag of fucks i had to give like the love for dark-skinned women from the feminist i'm so gone i gotta get off this rock because when it comes to natural disasters we don't look at people we look at stocks so gone so gone it won't be on tv but in your heart so says gill scott huron i'm so gone i need to reclaim myself sometimes being humble means you just playing yourself i'm so gone i didn't mean to damage your nerves i ain't a rapper man i'm just an advocate of words it was going on y'all good evening thank you for having me so uh my name is advocate of words real quick in high school one of my friends read a poem to a girl she fell in love with him and i was like that's it i'm gonna become a poet for like five six years i was horrible at it because i wasn't being sincere about it and then uh i started to find my love for for for poetry uh and i did a lot of that in the beginning at the near rican poets cafe before i had the fortune of performing there and one day someone read something of mine they're like oh you're a poet and i felt like now i'm more like an advocate of words and that's how the moniker stuck so um it's not something relatively new that i've written uh i'm in the middle of writing a novel so i haven't written too much poetry of late so thank you very much it's it's not easy it's not easy just say oh you're going through the process you awesome just the press so um so then the the last poem i'm gonna share with you is is relatively old but um and when i mean old i mean like seven eight years old but unfortunately it's still so uh it's very much relevant today and to what we're talking about so the bronx latina supreme court justice it sounds as sour as hispanic heritage money i refuse ideologies that imply the importance of my country be my culture be marginalized to 30 days they must have made a slip of the tongue must have thought that we could not understand their language as if it's shocking that a resident from the bronx has a grasp on this country's laws like it's an anomaly that a porto rican isn't always ballando or cocinando or fucking we don't have to wait till late september to understand what the southwestern and central hemisphere's cultures have done for modern day society this woman's blood his taino warrior european conquistador and african royalty she is as american as frederick douglas joe demaggio double taxation without representation the four seasons shopping malls and conspiracy theories someone must think that this melting pot of a country contains onion soup with a white cheesy covering but last eye check being a woman born of any race on united states soil is as american as it gets as pure as it gets your honor never let them call you the bronx latina supreme court justice like you some distinct charity case never ever will you hear advocate of words saying that white people are the enemy because they're not but they can no longer be viewed as the sole generic embodiment of this country either as a fellow new yorekan who is a proud bronx resident it is warming to see you receive this new job but you you in this specific instance are they equal so i'm going to respect you as such and refer to you as such so congratulations sonia sotomayor and american supreme court justice for advocate of words ladies and gentlemen and i one of the things i admire about about advocate is also how he he combines a lot of different performance styles and some of the elements that i consider to be um uh why spoken word is such uh an entertaining and engaging in a flexible art form um a mix of of of theater a mix of comedy a mix of political and social discourse um uh so i i enjoy seeing how you combine all those styles and i'm always impressed by your work next up i'm going to call to the mike jennifer fallou a celebrated performance artist who performs throughout new york city and across the country she was a member of the 2006 2009 2012 and 2014 new yorekan poets cafe slam team which is not easy to do to get onto a slam team at the cafe or any other circuit you have to win a bunch of slams and uh and then you get to compete at the national level so jennifer is a veteran of r and other slams and she really knows her stuff um she became the top female poet of the year in 2006 ranked third in both the 2009 and 2012 national slams and was one quarter of the tri-state areas first all female poetry slam uh slam team um she shared the stage with jennifer holliday and patty labelle she made her film debut in the movie mania days as long as well as uh rizza's uh koko an upcoming movie that co-stars jill scott and common and she's featured in the documentary that follows the 2016 brooklyn slam team she's also a kave connan fellow of 2016 please welcome to the stage jennifer fellow so there's this sales tax on tampons and um not seen as a necessity like food and medicine except it's not something that we can control therefore making pads and tampons a necessity um so i'm going to do this poem because we walk outside and our bodies and our uterates are seen as such a negative thing and i'm going to tell you a story about how my mother reacted when i got my period for the first time you can also use the hashtag um happy to bleed or free the tampon i've been bleeding for a spell or two unknowingly ruining my garments and letting the warm run down my leg the first time it happened i tried to look inside of my own body and make sure there was no extraterrestrials coming out i'm almost certain my mama told me about ministration and so did aunt missy aunt missy will tell this story about how she got her period and she told her mama i don't want this shit and i would laugh hysterically because aunt missy is hysterical about most anything so i guess when i got my period i didn't want it so much i didn't even realize i had it i just figured i needed to wash better blood will make you dirty you know i learned that early that it'll change you make you smell different make you walk different well the walk could just be the past but but the altering power that a red stain on your clean draws can make was enough to make me ignored for four more days and two more months after that each time i felt that warm i would run to the bathroom make a tissue pad and plead to whatever god was in charge of my ovaries not to let the tissue fall out during dance class i mean i thought about asking aunt missy what it was supposed to look like because it wasn't no way i had my period but i figured she done gave all her blood away ain't that what god be doing so why when a woman shed hers it ain't clean i waited until the fourth month to tell my mother that by my body's clock i was a woman she gasped so hard i thought she would swallow me whole those grass green eyes darting back and forth looking to see if i transformed i never told her that i had already been shifting by myself for three months never said that the day i came home and told her was the day it dawned on me that it was what it was i ain't too sure if i was too embarrassed to say now i got on clean panties today but i've been throwing away all the messy ones because i didn't want you to think you couldn't leave me in charge of my own vagina because no one your vagina is your vagina is important it's something about claiming ownership over an object that makes us humans behave like beasts my mama though she had like this period kid already waiting for me and she was prepared to let me think my body was mine leasing me to myself for keeping the title on her person at all times and i kicked myself for not telling her earlier because every month after that for the first day of my period she would let me stay home from school and we'd spend the day lying around in our pajamas drinking tea and eating snacks every so often she'd buy me flowers or a small gift every so often she'd make me feel like i was spotless so i miss obama i just missed the cool of him the ease of him um i don't trump gives me anxiety i feel like his feet stank it's just weird like i feel like melania's scared and frightened it's just weird it's weird it's weird i don't know so um this is a poem for her there is a candlelight in the belly of a man wax drips over the rib cage liver imagine do you lying down your blood red heart pumping courage throughout the body flickering flame in your eyes we say wink smooth is now i will watch its past noon anticipation in the throats of others same skin color same struggle we say we say please mr president wave for me kiss your daughters cock your shotgun time is now long time coming say who's saying say america is silly say if my people who are called by my name by my name humble themselves so say my name say your son's name out loud say movement say too long too long we've been hanging from trees on ropes on corners on couches say we got up say we read say we be battling making our own say vest please say barack your smile is bulletproof evidence shows that an intricate support system starts from the foundation say obama say you strapped say you steadfast say how the water is so big and your boat is so small but if my people who were called by my name humble themselves so humble yourself say you ain't no chicken say they come home to roost say they keep trying to make us all further in college but say we fly say we fly say we america say we be bald eagle and apple pie say we want our watermelon on the side say that's what you think nigga we pump our fists we beat our drums we name our children after god say we colored say we live in color say say we ain't come to paint the white house black let's say we wrap it in slave ship you motherfuckers don't want no trouble we just want what's ours say we ain't afraid say we hear say his name say god say god say say there's a candlelight in the belly of a man but say that you see our eyes they flicker too jennifer carlu ladies and gentlemen jennifer is a veteran of the slam scene she knows this art form like nobody's business and she's also a fantastic educator and mentor to students all over so we're very glad to have you here next up i'm going to call to the microphone the 2016 new yurican grand slam champion jamie lee louis he's an educator and inspirational speaker from new york city i'm just gonna sing a few more your praises and then come on up he's uh been active in the new york city art scene for many years he's built solid reputation as a community organizer and innovator he created a one-man show called unconditional and he's the author of a book called being um he is a fantastic poet writer performer and all around human beings so we are glad to have you uh may i call to the mic jamie lee louis can you hear me you're good i'll just i'll project so i have a poem entitled their africans in america it's actually a collection of 28 short poem as followed their africans in america one you are not stolen goods your skin is your receipt evidence that your life was purchased and paid for with the lives of those that arrived before you survival kitchenetics you are the moment your ancestors were waiting for too freedom is not a luxury it is a responsibility what do you take responsibility for three you are the promise the north star made to harriet you are the generation that visited martin in his sleep you are the letter malcolm wrote from mecca and the epiphany he found hidden behind blue eyes you are the 27 years nelson spent in prison you are the reason he missed his mother's funeral you are the seat rows of parks refused to give up you are sacred you are precious you are the hope of a people for white people are not your enemy harriet tubman freed over 300 slaves but she didn't do it alone and she surely didn't free herself without help to blindly place an assumption sewn blanket of anger over an entire race is not revolutionary that is irresponsible five i am less fearful of police officers killing our children and more fearful that their favorite rappers will kill their perception of reality and self-worth i watched my generation go from being the finish line to being merely a checkpoint in this repetitive cycle many of our peers are proof that there are numerous ways to take a person's life whether we choose to rationalize it or not we are collectively preparing our children for the lives we decide they deserve six you must study history in order to pass the test of time seven you are fighting for your life not the lives of others that's why bullets are not afraid of you racist men don't even hide under bed covers anymore according to the prophets your tactics are too televised to be the revolution roaches in the spotlight we are scattered quick to set it off slow to set the example love and respect cannot be legislated pray for a promised land you will not live to see and take your people there moses eight for civilizations and for centuries the only time men are not at home is when they are at war and our men are at war with themselves with the world that has labeled their strength an act of terrorism corporate america like vietnam there are kids still waiting for their fathers to come home as they are left to be raised by a mother he is already dead to nine we breathe together laugh and cry from our bellies we gasp for air together we're stumbling through this life we're stepping on each other's toes we're learning to walk together skin all shades of telepathic if you are my mirror i am beautiful ten i love the way your body blushes like you have a crush on the sun like you got kissed on the skin for the first time like the sun wears brown lipstick that you've promised to never wash off your skin it's so faithful 11 when did you become african american when did any of america's founding fathers asked god to have africans hand in marriage plantation ceremony we were socially conditioned to say i do no honeymoon just once culture hyphenated like it were a last name 12 we pass each other in the street we are love notes making our way across the classroom afraid of having the sentiments of our heart intercepted our nonchalant is unnatural and lust is just a defense mechanism being black shouldn't feel this voyeuristic 13 you're scared to love me in public we only hold hands when we marching 14 we family but we only come together at funerals 15 confession the first time i got stopped in frisk was on my way to school at the age of 13 by three black boys that lived in the neighborhood in which i attended junior high school 16 we don't die we multiply but we're divided that don't add up 17 social injustice is what happens when the taste makers are not the taste testers this country's appetite is hard to digest and black people are america's upset stomach 18 there are black sheep in the black community black chickens that decided best they not come home to roost often rather for a nest nestled away in the warm welcome of white suburbs black stones refused often turned out to be the chosen ones and only then do who those who denied them start hitting them up like let's build 19 we've been divided since house nigger and field nigger since slave states and free states since enslaved blacks and freed blacks since auction block since dark skin and light skin since uneducated negro and educated negro since book of t washington and w e b the bar since upper class lower class and middle class since martin since malcolm 20 the hate in the hood is so contagious most of us hate the hood because most of us are convinced the hood hates us however secretly every kid from the hood wants the hood to love them because if the hood loves you in your head the world loves you and then maybe just maybe you might be allowed to love yourself too 21 you cannot overthrow white supremacy with black supremacy you can only overpower white supremacy with black solidarity that is to say to meet your white brother's hatred with black hatred is ineffective white hate must be met with black love 22 black boys expect to die black girls expect their bodies to be used for a pleasure that is not their own every year beyond 25 makes a black boy feel like he cheated death and orgasm makes a black girl feel like she cheated the system 23 I will no longer use the color of our struggle to rationalize the crimes we commit against our own being anti-white does not make you pro-black 24 there are leaders amongst you ready hungry but unclear as to who they're fighting for what they're fighting for who they're fighting against and who they're fighting with they understand the subtle difference between war and conflict and they are not sure if it is wise to go to war with an army of men pointing guns with an army of men pointing fingers 25 hope is a black girl in Brooklyn is a brown baby taking his first step in west side chicago was a light-skinned girl in Atlanta who used to be in love with her perm but it suddenly developed a serious crush on her new growth is a black boy in oakland whose love for his own has recently grown too big but to fit in the word nigger is the black genetics of a fetus in the belly of a mother who just chose single parenthood over planned parenthood hope is another chance disguised as a child god's mercy in the form of a generation 26 the first funeral I ever attended was for an aunt that was murdered a third grader should not be able to appear into a casket looking for the bullet holes in his aunt's body yet we are taught to stop snitching the message no longer free mandala now we free boosie now we free max b now by all means I understand the plight of black men who sit in courtrooms with their lifestyle sitting on the witness stand testifying against them however it is hard to ignore the fact that the hood lets killers walk too so how does a black man speak life into this culture of rationalized killing how do I tell you you will not turn my child into a t-shirt nine 27 I am child of African export child of black America child of the hood child of immigrants child of a single parent home child of absentee father child of those below the poverty line child of darker skin I too was born with all the reasons we are not supposed to succeed born into a society that resists me born without the luxury of seeing oppression as a political issue it will always be personal 28 I am not fighting for equal rights I'm not fighting against oppression I'm fighting for something the white race can never give me I'm fighting for your love fighting the peace together this broken mirror we've become I just I just want us to love our reflection again keep the 40 acres in the mule I just want our fathers back I just want to give our sisters their crowns back fighting for something realer than real estate because you can gentrify a neighborhood but you can't gentrify a community I feel like that that might have been my whole time so yeah thank you yo um it's been real Jamie Lewis ladies and gentlemen there's a lot of wisdom in that verse that's some very impressive material and one of the things that you do that I admire a lot is that you you move very deftly from the personal to the global and from intimate interpersonal commentary to much larger societal complex intentions and that's that takes a lot of a lot of finesse a lot of of insight so I admire that it's a great deal all right that was Jamie Lewis we have two more poets and then we head into the panel discussion Roya Marsh is a nationally ranked poet performer who works as a teacher and a youth mentor and she's fantastic at all of those roles she was a finalist in the 2013 poetry idol 2013 inspired words slam master jam champion 2014 new yurican grand slam champion and captain of the first all-female slam team in the tri-state area where she represented the new yurican she ranked second in the world at the women of the world poetry slam she took home the nuts championship as a member of team reparations she's been featured in the village voice the Huffington Post, Blavity, Def Jam's, All Def Digital and most recently on Lexus Versus and Flow and many other venues please welcome to the stage Roya Marsh my name is Roya Marsh I'm a black poet who refuses to remain silent while this nation continues to murder black people I have a right to be angry I'm building me a home I'm building me a home gentrification uncle Tom man I solemnly swear to uphold the mission of restoration and upgrading of deteriorating urban properties often resulting in the displacement of lower-income people I get what you meant by projects you move me in stigmatize me then kick me out and raise rent and whitewash my hood with some hipsters and coke bottle glasses and chewed up commerce that will clutch their purse when I walk by tighter than a church mother holds her bible you get an A plus you know when I hear drink and draw I think a bottle of Hennessy in the game of spades and yeah my people push crack rock but that rock landed on us we don't own any planes we don't own any names jackson john sun darren wilson I will remind officers no that's not a gun that's my wallet my iced tea my bare hands no I will not sell lucy's or cds on corners fuck it I will not not sell lucy's or cds on corners because either way I might die and speaking of death thank you for replacing that crown fried chicken with a bistro with overpriced craft beers because we know way more people die from chicken induced comas than they do from drunk driving and mr. softy who we only eat fro yo on my block I have fallen victim to the ever so delightful caramel macchiato fuck yeah son that petitioner stopped the construction of starbucks with a fake name allowing them to bleach the black out of the bronze in brooklyn now my preschool sells unlimited mimosas yes my people are leaving call it reverse migration institutionalization incarceration or just plain murder in any case something dies ain't enough water in the faucet to wash away these sins I pledge to be a member of g5c gentry vocation incorporated I will uphold our founding father christopher columbus's mission to make a home of stolen goods and if you see me pray just know I'm building me a home my name is Roya marsh and I'm a black poet who refuses to make remain silent while this nation continues to murder black people I have a right to be angry and owed to the color purple or black women bleed to dear god I could write the most beautiful poem but the dick to the throat gets me the 10 the bullet to the head gets her a rally in a vacant lot I wonder how they say her body was riddled with bullets was it no mystery was it nothing funny only black and blood who you think you is you can't curse nobody you poor you black you're ugly you're a woman you're nothing at all sister you have the right to be made silent anything you say can and will be erased and the killer goes free I just stand back and see what the ground gonna look like see what kind of bodies they're gonna put on there now Tanisha, Tarika, Rakea, Ayanna, Corinne, Sandra, Sandra Bland sat in that jail I sat in that jail till I near done about rocked to death I know what I'd like to want to go somewhere and came I know what I'd like to want to sing and have it beat out of you and the killer still goes free you know I think it pisses cops off when they walk past the color purple in a field and don't shoot at it and don't nobody want to say her name only one hut to scream theirs scream daddy scream daddy don't please don't hurt my kids see daddy sinners have souls too him too been built in this body don't forgot just how much woman he actually is don't forgot this body be forest and steeple threatened by wind and fire and bullet and fist and the color purple is awarded to those wounded in action well all my life I have to fight to be black and woman and queer and breathing all at once is a war all on its own until you do right by me I am learning that loving myself is a deliberate act like black seeing black for the first time seeing it ain't the darkness they say it is until you do right by me I am learning that my black is beautiful and everything everything you done to me is coming right back amen my name is Roya Marsh I am a black poet who will not remain silent while this nation continues to murder black people I have a right to be angry Roya Marsh ladies and gentlemen Roya has one of the most powerful and unique and memorable poetic voices that I have had the good fortune to ever hear and there's a lot of truth and musicality and power and activism in your voice and I'm grateful to have you here thank you for being here all right ladies and gentlemen the the final poet of the night before we go into the panel discussion is Pamela Snead a New York based poet writer and actress who's been featured in the New York Times magazine the New Yorker timeout bomb vibe and on the cover of New York magazine she's the author of imagine being more afraid of freedom than slavery published by Henry Holt Kong and other works published by vintage and a chapbook called Lincoln in 2015 she published the chap with gift with Belladonna she's performed at Lincoln Center PS 122 in Mexico City in London Glasgow Scotland Manchester England at the Bamca Faye Joe's Public Theater Central Park Summer Stage Bronx Summer Stage Columbia University and many many other venues please welcome to the stage the fabulous Pamela Snead good evening good evening wow I had just begun to relax celebrate the marriage equality ruling I had just begun feeling with Obama I was watching Ali in trouble off the ropes delivering to his opponent the rope adult my father's eyes excitement I was just beginning to breathe air feel exhilarated at images of Joe Biden and President Obama running down halls of the White House with rainbow flags like boys with kites soaring I was just beginning to forgive deaths of my brothers to aides not forget there should still be tribunals for them and every woman abused by the medical system I was just beginning to turn a corner or my brown Freddy Gray Trayvon Martin Eric Garner the massacre at AME not think of it all every day and then the police killed this young black girl in custody in Texas claims she committed suicide and I remember we're a war nation in war times I imagine how James Bayard Nina Fowl seeing a nation turn its dogs teeth gas hoses bullets on children and adults I can't stop thinking about Steve Biko his battered face they say he hung himself to the world's outrage who will pray for us now America if you want to know the ending how it's all going to turn out the aftermath of a Trump presidency don't turn to analyst wall street or CNN for an accurate portrait of where it's all going what it's going to look like reread Octavia Butler's parable of the sewer set in California around 2027 people in fear behind walls gated communities a woman raped so much she can't stand gun violence addiction fires that can scarcely be put out people scavenging for food trying not to become prey compassion is gone the main characters named Lauren is a hyper empath she can feel others pain which I think is a metaphor for artists whatever you think of Marina Abramovic her show title is right the artist is was always present from the beginning of time till now look again at the Hunger Games the districts are actually concentration camps with gray garb in barb fences that nod to Nazi Germany human beings are pitted against each other to survive and sometime after Trayvon Martin was shot I finally understood something deep about Star Wars I always rooted for the good guys always and once I heard a friend at the movies rooting for poison ivy batman and batgirl's nemesis and I was shocked that anyone could root for a bad girl but after Trayvon was killed by George Zimmerman who walked free I finally understood what could turn a character's eyes dark you could become so disillusioned when then I understood in the Star Wars franchise what made Darth Vader Vader I felt that again after Trump's election no more green blue light only gray dark drab white bones war and last week I worked with a class I hadn't met before on the subject of black lives matter I repeated something to Greg said to a group of students what if the only justice we have right now is here in this room and one student said well nothing ever changes so I responded by asking them are you telling me then that you can't change they were all surprised shocked by my question at the end of the class I asked what have you learned today and a black girl answered as if she was channeling Octavia herself change it's up to us ten years old from the suburbs Boston I go into the city shopping with my cousin and friends we venture into Boston Commons the park there were hustlers there I didn't know then with the setup table they played some sort of game with shells hid money under a shell or a plastic cup moved their hands real quick made it purposefully look so easy naive 16 years old I bet 50 dollars a lot of money for me then they made it look so easy you just had to pick the right one of course it was rigged I lost felt dizzy sick to my stomach lost my gaze on Tuesday night after this election I felt the same way heisted in a shell game walking outside on Wednesday in my neighborhood a white woman who barely ever speaks was crying and asked what do we do and I answered earnestly a teacher an artist a professor who always tries I don't know later I walked up the street a white man in an SUV with the window down drove by he wore an expensive business suit had a big brown cigar like when babies are born expensive seen only in gangster films like good fellas or the Sopranos after a kill he looked happy smug and that's when I realized the Trump presidency is a hustler's game ballers club players only pimp paradise wise with teased hair and lots of plastic surgery on the white bt they made it all look so easy like a like a choice who knew the american dream was a side hustle for big business men with all their ugly red white blue striped flag merchandising available at wal-mart and target I'll never buy into again who knew freedom was a marketing idea a consumer product hallucinary drug cooked up in some rovian as in carl type of laboratory sweatshop maintained by the architects of apartheid freedom like air if you're white and male and rich enough to keep breathing today I started to cry as I wrote to my students knowing that in everything so far I've tried to protect them and realizing that there are places in this world that even my maternal hands can't reach in Poland the Warsaw ghetto against a Nazi fascist regime on southern plantations in fields in Haiti on the shores of Africa uprising the 60s the streets James Nina Bayard Miriam June Nikki Lorraine Audrey Pat Malcolm Martin with teachers thank you Pamela Sneed ladies and gentlemen Pamela there is a is a beauty and power to your words that that transcends the page and the voice and somehow you managed to be amazing and transcend it in both forms and it's a it's a blessing to have you here as well thank you so much for sharing that fantastic group with us ladies and gentlemen those are our six poets and now I'm going to turn the mic back over to Frank I guess we have a check one two check check yeah one two the mic sounds check check well so I'm blown away by what we heard today and I'm guessing that our audience probably is just as impressed and I'm more so than I am I'm I'm deeply honored to be able to be in the presence of six such transcendent artists and thank you all for sharing such amazing work with us what I would love to hear from from each of you is a little bit of discussion about what it means across the various roles that each of you hold as educators as writers as performers as activists how how you negotiate the changing times that we're in and how in each of those roles you communicate what are incredibly vital messages I'd like to start actually with the idea of educators because I know that each of you work as teachers as mentors as instructors and in some cases as coaches to rising artists and to young poets and I wondered if if if each of you are or any of you who are willing to talk a little bit about what it means to inspire in younger artists not just love of the art form but the importance of using the art form for for socially relevant purposes and how to inspire a sense of activism in younger artists and younger audiences well as a as a new new staff member at Urban Word but I've worked I've worked as a teaching artist for about 12 years now oh my gosh 12 years 12 years now one I think it's it's very easy to get young people to get the idea of itself expression but also I think the the importance of teaching artists is to help them also be able to pull from other sources um other influences around them the world around them and to see that for a lot of them the issues that they face is not just them there are social issues that lead to the conditions that help that they're expressing you know so when a young person speaking about um you know my my my parent not being present or you know or the struggle of living life that they live and it's like okay well let's talk about the cycle of poverty and let's talk about what that looks like so um there's so many layers to working with young people where I always say that I think we were talking about and no matter when you're working with young people you're a social worker whether you want to be or not whether you have to degree or not you know you are dealing with a lot and um I think the role of a teaching artist um and especially in the climate that we're in today is to help them process their own feelings about things because a lot of times you ask them and they shrug their shoulders but it's just us being able to channel what's already there they know the answers they don't always have the language they know what's wrong they know there's something wrong but they don't know how to they don't know where it comes from they don't know that it's bigger than just them so um I think that that's all our duty as you know older as another generation as educators as well as just human beings interacting with younger human beings to help them navigate this entire space and even on a higher level than even was offered myself I think um is my mic on you hear me all right cool I think the piggybacking word should know just say um I'll be quick but yeah so this is piggybacking what should know say you know I think the unique thing about education you know I don't want to say as a post entertainment but let's say that I think entertainment generally diverts one's attention from you know what's going on like and channels it more into an area of amusement but when you you know like many of us working in education it allows us myself in particular to talk to the students from the realm of reality and opening up a a dialogue about humanity and I think once you get the students or the kids or just people to talk about the human experience naturally we begin to talk about social issues you know and I think um you know as you know said it's you know once you get the conversation going to the humanity and then you give them the tools to then articulate what they're actually feeling and experiencing what happens is you get the narratives about poverty about abuse about you know sexuality about you know um just politics in general you get their perspective on things I think the major thing for me is always to get back to humanity you know um to get beyond beliefs beyond religion beyond gender not I want to say beyond gender yes there are the different you know the different experiences within each group but getting to the human experience the things that make the difference between being alive and not you know being here tomorrow and not having those conversations getting to those fears and concerns I think it becomes automatically understood that you have the power to say something that can change the outcome so um okay so I teach on the college level so like but last year I was actually the writer and residence for Poet Link at Lincoln Center but um and we have an anthology coming out at the end of the month and it's available for pickup it's Poet Link and it's all these really great young people throughout the city so if you want to like you know check out some really diverse you know voices and some really great you know young poets I work with people that are intergenerational I work with like a lot of different people from a lot of different ages one of the ways that I start every class is with Audre Lorde the transformation of silence into language and action and poetry is not a luxury and it doesn't matter what age I mean I've started like with 16 year old I mean there's like I think there was a kid that was in eighth grade I don't know how old that is right but um but basically um I've taught that I've started with that from like you know eighth graders to people who are like 60 and so that is my script um so the first thing that we discuss and and that kind of like sets the context for what it is that I want to talk about and um and I mean again you know the first thing she says is the person who is political and um and that and um I also teach I teach that um poetry is not a luxury again so that people begin to understand the value of poetry and the culture um and um and then also Dorothy Allison's deciding to live and um and that piece is like one of my favorite essays in the sense that it talks about coming to the word or coming to voice as a way of deciding to live right is a way of claiming one's life and um and I think that that's incredibly that's an incredible place to start um and that that frees people up you know immediately they're like whoa you know but um I find a lot of people become brave in that work and then specifically with with the Trump stuff um I've basically taken articles out that criticize him that talk about you know the government is spectacle all of this because I'm trying to give people a language with which to critique it um because a lot of times people are really overwhelmed by what's going on and um and it's a very sophisticated kind of manipulation that we're all under and so I find being able to kind of break down that that manipulation and show people and give them a language with which to critique it is a very powerful way of of getting them to kind of fight back thank you Jennifer yeah do you have any thoughts oh I mean I can I have middle school sixth seventh and eighth grade so for me it's really important um aside from politics my model in life is love above all things and um I always start with self-love and then we can go to other forms of love there is nothing wrong with an unapologetic love for oneself um so I make statements to them by the way I come to work every day um by the way I dress by the way I speak to them uh by the way you know by the way interact with them um I am very clear with them that I live in the same neighborhood as them and that if every morning I wake up and I take pride in myself then every morning you can wake up and you can take pride in yourself as well um I don't think that Roy and I have ever did a workshop together that hasn't started with Audre Lorde come celebrate with me something that something has tried to kill me and failed I don't think that we have done a single workshop where we have not started with that and that is the motto always come celebrate with me that something has tried to kill me and failed and I feel like every time we open up with that specific uh Audre quote um it kind of frees up a space for them to talk about every single thing that has ever tried to kill them and has failed and it gives them a kind of power that they did not know they possessed because sometimes things are trying to kill you and you don't even realize it so when you put a name to something that you feel like is destroying you and you weren't even aware of it and you realize holy crap I got over I am alive I am here I made it I won then it opens the door for all kinds of other conversations thank you um my love my affinity for poetry started really in the quote unquote streets right like I'm not trying to say I was hurt or street but like uh it was the gift to gab the hustlers I just always admired how they were able to talk their way out of things and stuff like that so um I became really that's how I really became interested in in language and how people were using language to manipulate one another so when I teach the students I don't call it poetry and performance I call it uh learning how to talk your way out of detention class right um and now I have done various things in terms of activism including like I've gotten arrested would occupy wall street being on you know front lines doing stuff like that and none of it personally for me ever felt fulfilling it never felt like man I'm doing all these things that all these other people didn't but it's not fulfilling me or I don't feel like I'm making my mark and I start to feel like I started to make my mark when I was teaching um and instead of telling kids what to think or how to think stuff like that I would I would I start to focus on when I start to realize was working for me was was getting them to to read critically to be critical readers for them to be uh effective uh communicators effective listeners effective speakers and I feel like so many issues in the world exist because people are not effective readers effective listeners or effective communicators I cannot tell you how many fights in my own neighborhood could have been avoided if people just spoke with one another also I come from a very diverse background where my father's Puerto Rican and my mother's white and I also have a large portion of my family is in the NYPD so I was always caught in arguments with with both sides and what I came to realize was like wow like both sides don't know much about the other side you know so like um because I come mostly from a large a family large of like NYPD so many of them didn't understand what was taking place on the other side and I'm talking about my uncles and my father like didn't even understand the things that I felt or was experiencing and it was just because like I said I they weren't being effective listeners there's that emotional tie you know they was like you don't understand what it is to be NYPD and the things that you see every day and and it haunts you when I said I can understand all of that but it's blinded you to the other side it's blinded you to the other side of things that are going on so with me I just feel like it's a it for me it was about the um critical reader effective listener effective communicator a child who is not afraid to communicate and say how they feel they're going to have the kind of courage needed to bring about change because change is scary and it requires a great deal of courage especially for those who are speaking out so like the people who are on stage with me right now have a great deal of courage and the people who are on stage with me now even some of them who I've just met tonight I am sure they have been in places where they were afraid saying man you know are my words about to fall in deaf ears or am I going to have to be concerned about my safety after leaving a venue or leaving a place so for me that's where it comes from if a child could be at a young age right they like they say the the revolution is in the mind of a child if at a young age a child you could teach a child to be a critical reader and an effective communicator then regardless of what my politics are with regardless of whatever my politics I would like to impart on them I would just be making the world a better place if if I could help people speak more often and effectively thank you my name is Roy Marsh I'm a black poet who refuses to remain silent while this nation continues to murder black people I have a right to be angry I also don't like holding phallic symbols towards my mouth so sideways and hope it picks up I teach my young people and my adult people I taught a preschool class today a four-year-olds I taught collegiate level and I the oldest student I've taught is 84 all of all of them like to be news reporters but of their own stories I think that I want most importantly to encourage them to grant themselves access to their own truth and their own voices to allow themselves to be heard as opposed to fearing that they won't be uh there is a great power in being able to teach writing itself and this spoken word as a tool for therapy as a therapeutic method but not to therapize them itself but to allow them the process to eliminate things that they may have been ruminating over and over again and turn it into some tangible thing that they can crumple throw in the trash set on fire give to someone that they may never be able to actually speak to vocally and I think a great lesson for me is being able to share my blackness which I definitely was born into without choice but grew into with demand and command and definitely stand in very truthfully and very strong and to allow people especially youth of color and queer youth of color to know that they are not alone that someone who looks just like them who lives a lifestyle very similar to theirs stands in front of this classroom and cares and listens and can also do the work and show them how to do the work and encourage them to do the work and if they are not comfortable doing that work that it is that that that is acceptable as well that that is okay whatever it is that their truth is may they live in it forever thank you Roy thank you all for these I'm learning a lot by listening to all of you so I very much appreciate you sharing your experiences I I want to ask you about a question that I sometimes struggle with and I'd be interested to hear if this is something that is a challenge for each of you or how you navigate through this contradiction so a lot of us are affiliated in one way or another with organizations that are either by tradition or by law required to be non-partisan required to not choose a political side I think as individuals it can be easier to fall in line with that mission if there happens to be an administration that one sees eye to eye with if on the other hand as for many of us is true now one lives at a time when it is much harder to accept the elements of you know the political order how do we negotiate between what sometimes are the professional or even legal requirements that we have to be officially non-partisan if we're speaking on behalf of an organization or as an instructor or in such a way that we are encouraged to allow young minds to make their own decisions while also trying to do what's right as as individuals go ahead my name is Roya Marsh uncompromising and I am a black poet who refuses to remain silent while this nation continues to murder black people I have a right to be angry in response to that question I was actually asked on February 7th not to wear black anymore to one of the schools that I work in and so my clothes have actually gotten blacker and blacker it is now March 13th and I haven't worn a different color at all since I was asked not to wear black anymore and I would do that until June 26th which is the last day of school because I'm a black poet and have the right to wear whatever I would like and I think in response to that question I don't know if organizations should go into business with individuals that they don't think will represent their organization properly and I think that that is similar to me with relationships there are always signs of what this person is going to be doing how they're going to be representing and what behaviors or attitudes or political ideals and what ways they will manifest you know as the partnership continues and for any one person to think that they can hinder someone's self-expression especially in the field of art I think that's irrational thank you I would say actually I did a professional development workshop with middle school based in Brooklyn in Brownsville Brooklyn and with the teachers we actually talked about like you know the idea of giving the young people the children space to talk about things and they were like no we don't talk about politics we don't talk about that we you know we're just focusing on Common Core we focus on teaching we don't want to talk about you know that because parents will come back and they're going to come here with their Make America Great Again hat and yell at us and say this and that and that and that so the way that I had to like because I understand the idea I totally get it because I've worked in schools as well as with schools so I understand the idea of the fear of you know little Timmy going home and saying mommy Trump is the devil and she's like no I love Trump what are you talking about or or bomb is amazing and they don't agree you know that kind of battle that happens there um but the interesting thing about art is because it's called self-expression the idea for me is just no one said you have to sit here and indoctrinate a child with what you believe in but the big thing is that young people have questions and um I'm such a fan of the Socratic method you ask me a question I'm going to ask you a question right back why do you think that is because in the same breath even if I agree with the kid I still say they're like Trump is evil why because I can tell you didn't you didn't come that on your own young person so why why is that well because he's bad how well he did that well did he really do that where did you find that oh my friend told me did you read and I think that those ideas just the idea of processing and thinking and that's what art is in my brain a one big element of art is art was a very good way to ask questions and have viewers and listeners ask questions of themselves and ask questions of where did the artists come from where was the artist there and I think that um for those that are confined by those spaces that are in those spaces where it is you are getting fired if you say certain things and I understand keep your livelihood I will never tell you because I can't hire everybody um but simple as asking questions I didn't tell you anything to do you actually were able to come to the conclusion for yourself and if you can't do it for yourself there's a problem go and get a book and figure it out as um um as a father that that's something that concerns me in terms of like you know having your child be indoctrinated I do love I agree like what was Chanel saying like questions it's like like like let's have questions and and to speak about that and and you know question everything um and I've even been saying even as a father I'm saying it now um children should be questioned in their parents you know respectfully but they should always be questioned in their parents and as parents if we're right we're going to have the right answer or we're going to be remain in the right you know some of us are lazy and we're like no you we can't go to the park now something important is going on right now when it's like no it's just you didn't want to go outside with you kid um so there are certain things like said um that that I am concerned about that but as an artist right like not as someone who runs an organization but as an artist um I personally like the choir as much as the next person but I also know that that I've got to go into the spaces that may not be very accepting of my ideas and and and maybe that's where I can bring about some change so I may not be able to change someone completely but maybe I could give them a little nugget to to send down the road so um you know just a general example not saying that this actually happened but a general example I don't know what everyone's politics are um I'm not a fan of Trump I wasn't a fan of Clinton but I'm not a fan of Trump and so if if I come you know if I'm able to gain access to an organization or a group of people who love Trump maybe I can show them an aspect or a factor or or or challenge something that they believe about him that slowly make you know just tilt the mirror a little and they see life just a little differently like oh you're right you know okay I still like Trump I don't like Clinton but I can understand what you mean by Trump and and and not liking him you know because because going around but again personally for me going around you know and speaking to to people about like you know look look at the impression look at the inequality that's going on look at all these these BS that they're doing with finances and all that you know I could shoot the shit with people all day long about that and it won't bring about change you'll just be like okay we we both agree great you know but for me personally at the age of 37 I've met a great deal of people I agree with it's the people I don't agree with what I'm old you didn't know I was that old that's because I'm still good looking um what you're trying to say about the people that's so uh so uh so to end real quick um like I said it's it's those challenging spaces that I personally like to go into um because um there are many places I could call home and I feel safe there and that's great but the front line is is not safe um I I wanted to say before that I've like learned how to be very subversive you know and I mean I think that's a that's a trait you know that African-Americans certainly queer people I mean you know women we've had to do that um in you know academic and teaching environments forever and uh one of the ways that I do that is through the syllabus so um a lot of times like people have never even um they're not even aware that most of the people that they've read are white you know or that like you know women there's not a majority of women on the syllabus or there's not a majority of people of color that they've never had an Asian person on the syllabus they've never had a Latino person on the syllabus you know and so just by changing up the syllabus uh basically that's an active subversion and um and basically there's a Zoe Leonard's piece um I want a president is on display at the Highline and I participated in an event and I mean which is really really incredible in the sense that it says you know I want a dyke for president and I'd be like you know 20 years ago when I was coming out or something to see something like that would have saved my life you know and still people go by it and they you know they cry and they have all these reactions so to still see that in this era in this time is really really radical and for those who don't know it's her poem uh it's a poem piece of visual art that they basically um she did I think in like 93 or something and they've uh you know placed it up on the Highline and I think it's going to close soon but um I participated in the event for that and um and because uh the Highline gets funds I don't know like they get a lot of different funding but it has to be nonpartisan and so like and it was right before the election and um and it was like unbelievable that like we could not say publicly that we endorsed you know Trump I mean that we endorse you know Hillary you know so that was that was kind of bizarre I mean a part of me didn't want to do it but then I thought about you know how do I approach this and uh what I did was I rewrote the um Martin Luther King's um I have a dream speech and um and so I went to the place of the dream and um and basically to include uh women to include LGBTQ people um to include people from different classes so it was basically how do we update this vision right um and so that was my political statement and then people like got it but again it goes back to the idea of how to be subversive and we always have to figure that out yeah well I think um language is super important right like the way that we use language the way that we um choose words is super important so there are tons of ways to say whatever it is that you really want to say right that's first second like for me it's a little different like I feel like my friends and I we have like a mob mentality like she'll tell like we we mob everywhere we go the takeover situation is real so um I feel like there isn't a place where we kind of step into that we don't make our own um and I think the other side of that is like sometimes when somebody says that you can't say something you have to say keep your check fam like and that's it and and because the check will come from somewhere else and at some point in time you see Roya won't open her mouth before she says I am a black poet who refused like you have to be uncompromising at something for something you have to be so at some point everybody has to say no keep your money because I need to be able like I need to sleep at night I need to be able to show my daughters that I have morals and values and that there are some things that I just will not stand for and there are some things that money cannot make me revert or reverse my opinion or my beliefs or or what I know to be actual and factual like if I see something and I say I look at it and it's like facts if I see facts I see no lies here and you tell me that I can't say I see no lies here I don't need your check it it it is what it is like you either mob and you take over or you use the language um and you say things in a way yep that is different or you say no I won't compromise I want the green skittles in my jar or my rider like you know you don't compromise so I feel like that that that's but that's just me you have time for me to answer or you go ahead all right um you know it's an interesting question I definitely wouldn't know what we fear is I'm always on the odd side of everything I'm always like the odd man now I'm always dolo so it's almost like in these moments even these political times it's interesting for for a person like me and people who are like me where there ain't no group that I can mob up with there's no like you know political side but that's all the time I mean I'm mob but I like that pumpkin but here's the reason why though it's like I really have learned and I'm going back to humanity again I have to bring it back to that because I'm I am my own you know self-realization and personal awakening I realized how much of our lives are spent fighting for the things that we believe define us and they're the things that really divide us it doesn't mean that I that I don't see the conflict within the world it don't mean that I ain't going to war with certain things but even when it comes to war you should like even as a warrior you have to see the humanity and the life and the thing you're going to war with you get what I'm saying and I think so when it comes to me stepping into spaces you know I come in off the top like there's an issue here there's a purpose in which I'm here there's a void that I have to fill now I think when I bring the conversation to that human level because we could throw out names like Trump and Hillary and everyone whatever other political leaders but when you get down to the root of it there's a human need that's there there's a fear that's there and I address those things you can't deny those things you can argue a you can argue a belief but the experience is almost like undeniable and I think just not even just within me but all the great creators throughout history all the great the great leaders are the ones who are able to rip right through all the noise and get down to the experience and put that on the stage in which like audiences across the globe can't deny that this is what we're feeling and so I think even in a lot of the movements that are happening right now the challenge is you know people from every group is pretty much saying can you not look at me as a human you know and so I think I always bring it down to that and when you do that it's almost like you you kind of pull their cards and they and they have to let you do what you want to do yeah I appreciate all your answers I have one more question for our panel and then if there's time we can take some questions from the audience and it actually it has a lot to do with what you were just talking about the idea of cutting through the noise and focusing we're in those of us on stage are all in a fairly left leaning industry in a fairly left leaning city that tends to be much less in favor of the current administration than it is in favor of it there's a lot of advantages to being around relatively like-minded people but one frustration that I hear from a lot of artists a lot of students a lot of activists is that right now there is an enormous amount of noise and it might be noise in a direction a lot of people agree with but I'd like to hear from each of you how do you how do you focus your activist and your artistic energies at a time like this how do you focus when there are so many ways so many organizations so many individuals so many talking heads and public figures who have their own take on what's wrong how do we as artists activists educators focus our energies so that we don't exhaust ourselves but still continue to push forward and continue to accomplish and achieve um I got next so I think it's important to choose what is important to you period like you choose what's important to you so let's just say the women's march of the I was supposed to a poem there right supposed to do a poem but my students had a trip to the hall of science right a school-wide trip six seven and eighth grade so for me it literally came down to okay so do I go and hang out with these brown babies that who I teach every day do I disappoint them and say I'm not coming because I'm going to go perform and um do poems to save the 53% of white women who voted for Donald Trump anyway and now everybody has biased remorse and because I I'm not going to save the world on the backs of black women anymore so I am going to choose to go and do my activism work and my activism work is raising six seven and eight graders for hours on hours and on hours a day and check my inbox on facebook because they message me and and and check my dms and instagram because they message me and they want to call me and that's my activism work so if I have to choose between saving the 53% of white women who voted for Donald Trump or the brown babies I'm going to choose those brown babies it has to be what is important for you that's a hard act to follow but but I mean I think that in even in adding to that the idea of um of filtering you know I I know I have to take my news in doses I cannot start my day off with the daily huffington post um news I cannot do it it will um I will get to work and I remember one of the things where it's a very open office that I work in and um it would be like y'all guess what happened today and they're like aw damn and then we'd be mad for like a half an hour hour um so it's just it's just also monitoring how much you're intaking um it's very in it's where we live in a society where information is always always being processed always being shoved down your throat always being placed in the forefront you got the metro you got the am your you got it all over the place and it's easily and readily accessible but um you still have to still guard the avenues of your mind as they say you know you still have to be able to know that one um whatever's going on in there yeah it's not necessary it can very much change what's happened in right in front of you right but I also have to be present I have to have to make sure I'm taking care of myself and um a spa day goes a long way um whether that is uh through foam rolling a day at the gym but it's just that self-care aspect has to happen that and and you have to know what your limits are um well I wanted to say before uh one of the things that I do in terms of working with people is um it's not to talk at them but basically to teach them how to think right how to how to think critically and I think that that's one of the things that's like lacking in this culture is that a lot of people don't know how to think critically you know and so that's that's a strategy so that's one of the things that again like my my teaching work is is part of my activism work but one of the things that I've done and it started as a fluke because I just finished a book um which is called Aname for me Tina Turner and All Black Women Survivors um but basically on Facebook since I'm on Facebook a lot um I decided to uh basically create a character um and she's a slave woman um and she's narrating uh things that are going on on the plantation and so basically I used it as a form of like social commentary because if you say things outright on Facebook uh basically people you just get a lot of fights and a lot of craziness so I thought you know let me let me just say what I need to say from the perspective of this slave right and um and so people say that it's like it's it's part comedy and it's part it's satirical but it's also like a scathing indictment of the administration and you know because I call him master and I call Ivanka misses and you know and the whole thing and um and so and actually I ran into like the provost of like uh NYU and he's following some of the he's following the post right and he said they're brilliant and um and so one of the ways that I've decided to kind of like deal with this administration was to to basically create something I thought was funny I didn't wasn't even taking it seriously but basically it became a really important form of social commentary right um that a lot of people are asking me to continue so I mean there are so many ways that we can kind of take care of ourselves or that I didn't have to get into some of those like you know the the news dialogues because they're so awful but um but basically how I approach things what I think is important so I get to do satire and I get to do social commentary and um and it's powerful you know something that comes to mind you just want to throw in there um but ultimately my the end thing is you got to know what you're about and but um one thing when I look at a lot that's happening right now is that that at the core as like as humans you see now more than ever that people want to belong and a lot of these different movements like a lot of the noise is from the peripheral people like the the few that know what's going on there they're really invested and then there are people who want something to identify with a place to to say yo this is what I'm about this is what I am and um and it creates a lot of noise and for that reason I think for me there's some compassion that has to go there I used to get upset like why are they all talking you know but it's like I realized that's that's part of it you know um it's like just it's pretty much how to how like when two people have a beef but the entourage is the one who's sending shots it's like that you know because again there's people who just want to be a part of something when two sides of beef and it's like oh I'm down with them I'm down with them and it's there's there's a part of that that I don't know what it is but I think in that as well though you know just to again echo it again it's important to know what you're about I think the challenge is um when you feel that whatever your stance or experiences has to be the absolute human experience and everyone has to even know how you feel it becomes real dicey at that point I think there's a point where you have to again claim um your struggle your mission your objective your purpose and have and have that being for you be enough and commit your life to it and not rely on any outside validation you know of its importance and when you can do that I think you can allow you know this ecosystem of conflict to you know to exist thank you um I'm gonna do my best to not repeat what everyone else said because a lot of people said things I would add so what I would add on is that for me there has not been that great of a change within the political system and in our society um for me and that is because I don't just look to mainstream media to tell me how to feel um police killing unarmed black people seems to be something that's been so new when the numbers arise in the last five seven years um and it's not true um it's been going on it's just that all of a sudden it seems to be in the news and we have youtube right um uh to see the toys have changed right like so society hasn't changed but the toys have access yes so now it's getting to to be seen more you know um Latinos being deported um there were record breaking numbers within the Obama administration I expect no less from the Trump administration right so so for me that hasn't changed women fighting for their rights hasn't changed I mean you look at the stories of Edward Bernays and in 1930s 40s the feminist movement the tobacco company took that over to raise their prices do you know so when we hear oh the feminist movement or Black Lives Matter Occupied Wall Street you know that there's aversion there's eight and eight hundred there's people coming in here and you know trying to ruin it that's been going on you you know like so I don't feel there is more noise today than there was in the 90s or in the 80s I mean I would I was in the single digits in the 80s but I remember the fear of like my parents and you can't go here and you can't go here and then all these different places are scary and so for me you know nothing's changed but um like we said the toys and now people are finding out oh my god unarmed black boys are being killed by police and and my reaction is although it's gotten less angry because I guess I've gotten used to I've been desensitized unfortunately is where the fuck you been would it you know you get a YouTube account and now you know what's going on in the world like this stuff has been going on jobs leaving wall street taking over banks doing dirty deals federal reserve all this stuff is old news and it keeps repeating you know itself and you can even see that in looking at the poems right like you can listen to poems from the 20s from the 30s if you're a man you can listen to a poem from a woman if if you're black you can listen to a poem from white person if you're white listen to a poem from the black person from from like the mid 1900s and you still feel like oh my god that feeling I know what that feeling is you know people talking about the iraq war is just like the vietnam war you know a new toys new place it's it's the same thing so I think for an artist you know in the beginning especially as an artist wants to be active every fight and war is the front line and you've got to be on every single one of him and then um I had a friend you know speak to me and he said well you know you don't live alone in the world you got to trust other people and he wasn't talking about activism but when he said that I kind of took that on and it was like you know it's right like so if if I'm putting my energy into the youth I have to recognize I'm not the only person in the world and hopefully there are other people out there fighting a good fight on on different fronts because you could wear yourself so thin even in a facebook argument where the thread has 150 comments you can be worn so thin and so um like everyone else said uh pick your battles my name is Roy Marsh I am a black poet who refuses to remain silent while this nation continues to murder black people I have the right to be angry uh black itself is not a color it absorbs all of the colors of the visible spectrum and reflects none of them which is to say I am the noise um I don't I don't like the videos I don't share the videos I don't watch the videos what I do in response to that is swipe people of color in on the train when they're looking for one because 275 is no reason to have a record because if you don't have 275 you don't have a hundred dollars to pay the fine which means you now have a court date which means you don't have the money to pay for a lawyer which means you will end up with a record therefore I'm still black and I will not be silent and I'm angry as hell thank you all I wish we had a lot a lot more time to go through all of this because these are some amazing artists and I love hearing what y'all have to say what are we doing on time with them okay all right are there some questions from the audience someone talking a bunch huh well I think all these answers are tough acts to follow and it's uh I'm learning a lot listening to all of you and I think you know we are we're lucky as a city and lucky as you know an arts industry to have such eloquent and impassioned spokes people and artists and and activists who are championing the causes that you all are passionate about anything else from the audience oh yeah good point because artists do and I think a lot of you pointed to that just cuts through all of that in terms of kind of speaking kind of sticking to what you've always been we've always been doing as artists in terms of speaking truth and looking at humanity and how do you think critically how do we how do we you know figure out who we are and love ourselves and things like that and those are things that are it's not red or blue it you know that's kind of stuff that carries us through every administration it's and I think it should be taught these kinds of things you are all doing it so I just want to thank you it's amazing thank you I hope to get you all to La Casita because I'm also curating there I know that you're there yeah it's great thank you yes sir I know all of you almost teacher and activist at the same time and I was curious have you ever what what mayors I think the mayor's wife is after no matter if I'm not mistaken have you guys tried to engage them you know to make change in the community or just engage the politicians like a mayor's office or other oh I have I work with community board eight and they and excuse but they are so full of crap on both sides of the aisle I've sat down with both sides of the aisle I have sat down with public and I've sat down with Democrats I don't care what their gender is what their political aspect is it's all bullshit I have met and come in like I don't want to put some names out there but I've met some people like oh my god I did by saying what community board you were like this is great this is great right community board northwest Bronx community board eight so you know I'm like great I'm meeting with this person I know there's stance in this and that and then they're like but how does this help me and how does this help how does this help like they have no problem it's gotten to that point they have no problem say yeah but how's it gonna help me how's it gonna help me get reelected and and there was one time I tried to speak with a politician didn't want to talk with me year and a half later I'm seeing him on 231st and Broadway trying to shake everyone's hand because he had to get elected and I went up to him I said oh are you ready to talk now you're ready to talk to you're ready to talk oh my Oliver Capella is ready to talk with me ladies and gentlemen amazing you know because it gets upsetting it gets and you know when you get into the political arena if you're not a monster it makes you a monster and and and it's very hard for people to to not become a monster and be part of it and that's when I had started to slowly move away and I was like nah screw this so that's just me but I think it's also fear right so I mean um in terms of the mayor and his wife you know what I have like but Charlene is a poet like no but but my wife but but they invited my best friend until they saw that she was blackety black black black and then disinvited her so there's that but there are things that happen like that but like fear of just how does this align with my message um does this help me I mean we could we could look back to uh Obama and Jeremiah Wright right how um he had to politically he had to distance himself from Jeremiah Wright even though what he was saying was taken out of context or that the entire message wasn't being shown so I mean it really is about about fear and who you're connected to and you know that kind of thing um yeah I don't know one of the things that I try to do is to get people to engage where they want to engage or to feel empowered to work in a lot of different areas so some someone might you know work in local government somebody might you know write a book um I mean I came from um the new school and basically um every single graduate uh went into some aspect of social justice right every single one of us not all the same one you know but uh but but the quality of the education was so good at that time that we all basically ended up in some aspect of social justice and so hopefully in the education that we're all providing that you know people will find their voices and find their path to work in the areas I mean what I'm trying to do is not uh just to empower myself but to empower everyone to find their particular voice and their particular in in where they want to work you know I think yeah what she said that she hit a major I don't know right but she you hit a major um no for me my direct answer to your question is personally no I don't reach out to politicians and try to get them to further my message um I I understanding not respect is in agreement but I see what they're about I think for me I'm more hands on with the community the black community is my is honestly my concern um it doesn't mean the other communities are important but my true concern are the kids in my neighborhoods um like the ones I grew up in I do you know for me though I have friends that that um for them that's their mission they they they're going the political route and so for me I think one of my my outlook is you should have people everywhere you know my friends who work in politics they're not writing poems they don't teach and I'm not going to tell them to go teach you know I think you should have people in specific areas Saint and Caesar's household all the time I was going to say I actually work with a lot of different politicians um uh actually see this is the thing I think that I will say this and when we speak to well no no I like that I work with elected officials and um I will say this this is something and I've lobbied I do that as well I've done that for lupus as well as for education and I'm funding for TAP and from I've done that for many years um I do think that there is once again this kind of understanding of the realm that we're in right and understanding also and it sounds terrible but it's real because as you know as talked before the idea of being able to finesse a message and also to find where the middle ground is because I think that that's the other side of it whereas like yo let's be real you can't do that person can't do anything if they're kicked out of office if they're not elected that person can't do anything they can't now of course there always is that fine line between right and wrong and there's that fine line between help and not help at all but um I think one of the things that it's been effective in in many respects is finding out what that person's stance is and yeah how does this help you I don't even you don't even have to ask me that that's what I lead with you know I think that um politics I do think that um while I know that this world is very very corrupt um in all genres in art in in every genre there is some level of corruption in it and there is a lot of what cannot how does this help further my career and my life and I'm like okay you want to further your career in life that is perfectly fine this is what I need you to do this is what you can do and um I think that um we you know in the world we live and we have to be also be realistic and also be creative um and coming up with the ways that we can partner and meet in the middle ground and um you know it's it's very hard it's very hard to I can't and I will never demonize anybody for trying to further their best interest I will never demonize you I understand it it is a human natural thing to try to make sure you go on live you're gonna be okay you have family to feed you you know what you want in the future I do agree with you and the idea of trying to find ways to bring because I talk to kids all the time they're like I want to be a lawyer I'm like why do you not want to be a judge I do not want to be chief justice you know you want to do this but I do not I have the gift to gather me a businessman no why don't you become a politician you know and and those are the ways that we we um further that and um and that is just outside of art that's outside of that's just a part of like expecting life and trying to to grow the world around us my name is Roy Marsh and I'm a black poet who refuses to remain silent while this nation continues to murder black people I have a right to be angry I was actually asked to perform for the aforementioned politicians for free I was told what poems I could not do so I did the blackest gayest raunchiest most profane poem that I had and I walked out drunk with four hundred and twenty dollars in chat book sales so I'm pushing the envelope as far as I can I wasn't asked to leave I was invited to three more corporations to perform and I think for me I'm not asking anyone to do anything or to try to do anything I'm doing it I'm leading by example and I'm showing them that I am someone that they need to follow if I could quickly piggyback off of politicians are public servants they're supposed to be afraid of us and work for us not for them so I love how you're set in the tone and you're like screw you yuck well I'm a black poet who refuses to remain silent absolutely that is a powerful note to end on I think ladies and gentlemen unless uh well unless there's any other any more questions anything else from the audience um we are very very yes I'm not saying okay well I'm I'm personally very grateful um uh and I'm very impressed and I've learned a heck of a lot from everything you all have to say if you like what you heard today first of all each of these poets has uh websites they have chat books they also perform and teach throughout the area and we are very grateful to have them here you can hear these poets and others like them at the New York Poets Cafe and if you like in particular anything that you heard from tonight talk to that poet find out how you get in touch with them and um uh we are grateful to you all thank you very much and very grateful to the Graduate Center and to Frank and Rebecca for making this possible um thank you much