fuckyeahspokenword

raptor-dance:

“Shrinking Women” by Lily Myers

And I wonder if my lineage is one of women shrinking / making space for the entrance of men into their lives

buttonpoetry:

Tonya Ingram - “Unsolicited Advice (after Jeanann Verlee)” (CUPSI 2013)

“When your mother asks you why you take so long in the shower, tell her that you hate this cancer, this dark that wears you like a plague.”

Tonya Ingram, performing for NYU on finals at the 2013 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational. NYU went on to win the tournament for the second year in a row.

(via tesselation-tea)

mindless-meandering:

five—a—day:

Exhibit X

I learned in school that war is what happens 
when nations disagree, but the textbooks never told me 
that war is also what happens when parents disagree, 

and when children throw insults harder than they hit baseballs
and when I cannot force myself out of bed in the morning 
because there is a voice in my head that tells me 
I might win the battle, but I will not win the —

War is what happens when teachers call on students
who don’t have the answers and they are left 
fighting their father once he sees their report card. 
War is what happens when it rains so hard 
blades of grass bend over defeated. 
War is what happens over telephone wires when a son 
tells his mother he is gay and her white flag 
of surrender is the phone going dead.

I have seen war burst into being the moment girls think 
they’re too old to hold hands and again some years later when 
they’re too young to do more than that, but charge forwards regardless
only to end up with semen exploding inside them like shrapnel.

I have seen war across some people’s wrists.
I have seen it in bones trying to revolt from the flesh.
I have seen it in eyes like double whiskey shots
that are drunk off self-hatred.

I was taught that war was loud. It was supposed to be
bombs and a dictator’s speech and the sound of an entire race 
being crossed off one by one, like the days of a calendar.
And I can agree that this is war, but war can also be quiet.

War can be as quiet as a miscarriage.
Or the therapy sessions afterwards, which is quieter even.

It can be as silent as a gas leak.

They asked me in sixth grade what war meant to me
and I told them about the Holocaust, I told them about the Jews.
I didn’t tell them about the boy across the road from me
whose father used his forearms as ashtrays and whose eyes
were the American flag: star-spangled.

I didn’t tell them about women that have their bodies claimed 
like new worlds, or men who punch walls and wear their bruised knuckles
like honour badges for all the tears they haven’t cried because 

they were raised to be soldiers and soldiers do not cry.

I didn’t mention any of these things because I was taught 
that war was big. It was something that happened between countries 
and it happened with armies and guns and nuclear weapons.

But if they asked me now—if they asked me now
what war meant to me, I would tell them that war is what happens 
inside people, and I would show them this poem as my evidence.

ethiopienne:

Sean Bell.

yearsofmagicalthinking:

“Team Lightskinned” by Kai Davis, Hiwot Adilow and Telia Allmond

CNN: “Who is Black in America?” explores how color affects identity. In this video, slam poets Kai Davis, Hiwot Adilow and Telia Allmond from the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement perform a poem, ”Team Lightskin,” about their experiences growing up as light-skinned black women.

(via shorbet)

shadesofmysoul:

“Monster.” To the one who broke your heart, and to the other who soiled your bed.

(via shorbet)

Regina’s (Regie Cabico’s) hilarious debut with a Tony worthy interpretive dance poetry performance titled “Moonlight Erotika” at The Encyclopedia Show DC: MOON

Gayle is so poised, passionate, and powerful that she conjures a spontaneous dance party after her poem! A MUST SEE performance by Gayle Danley on Moon Romance at The Encyclopedia Show DC: MOON