You wanna give me a shiner
Cause I look like this
And I got a vagina?
See, I'm familiar with this Gender Game,
I've played this war many times before
On this playground called my identity
When puberty hit like dodge balls
And freeze-tagged as sissy-fagged
My best friend dissed me- common interests,
Different anatomy.
See, vagina meant quieter, caretaker, peacemaker.
Vagina meant keeping lips closed, keeping bodies posed.
Vagina was silent dolls and no action toys,
Vagina was punches when I played with the boys.
So I learned to take it in the stomach, I learned to Fight to make friends.
And as I learned to make that bullshit end,
Vagina became a slippery slide for my little finger
Vagina became a quiver that lingered,
Vagina became what I looked for, worked for, stood for,
I "Viva La Vagina'd all over the place!"
I revitalized Vagina's grace, I discovered vagina's taste.
I became a fine diner. Put my face in vagina after vagina.
And then I was faced with some other lipservice
Putting me in my place
That Vagina should not be liberator.
But dictator.
Of the shoes we wear. The hair we crop.
The palms we clasp. The way we walk.
The space we use. The threads we choose.
Well, I refuse to follow suit.
Cause I gotta confess, my straight jacket is a dress.
You know it used to be a crime
To wear clothes that didn't scream
"Vagin-A!"
I wear these shoes so I can move with my own easy spirit.
I don't shave my legs cause
It gets cold. Besides, my legs rebel
Against the bloody hell of
Shaved and sliced
And since when is my body hair something to judge?
Is furry a male privilege-
Or a patriarchal plot by gillette?
I don't cut my nails cause I've got hammering to do.
I'm pounding out my path as I cruise this gender landscape,
As I peruse the choice between silence and
Violence.
From http://www.lyricsmania.com/gender_game_lyrics_alix_olson.html
Matthew Shepard was bent, so you hang him to a fence,
Brandon Teena was murdered as a liar for hiding his
Vagina. And I can't even sit
In a restaurant without causing a stir:
"Whaddya have sir? Whaddya have sir? Whaddya have sir?"
I have a Vagina!
Yes, I've got a vagina and you can still call me sir,
Cause I can't cure
This visual disease of yours.
But I don't give a damn about "Sir" or "Ma'am".
So, in the "F" or "M" boxes they give,
I forgive myself for not fitting in
And blame the world for lack of clarity.
I deliberate.
Penis? I got one y'know. I write down "d" for dildo,
I write down "D" for
"Don't know," I fill in "F" for
fi-fie-foe male!
Yes, I'm a giant Vagina!
And I am too big for these boxes they give,
Too real for this Gender Toyland
Built over soiled contradictions
With Barbie bricks and Ken cornerstones
Built over the skulls and bones of our Transgendered Ancestors.
Danger:
She-men working above. And beyond. You.
Yes, we are Deconstruction Workers.
We are exposing unfounded bedrocks
That bed us to one sex, that wed us to one gender.
We are overturning those stones,
We are throwing them back.
We are making revolution
A gender evolution.
We are invoking strategy, we are revoking shame.
And we are calling it. We are calling it
Refusal to be Named.
[ These are Gender Game Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Poet for the People: An Interview with Alix Olson
Alix Olson (born 1975 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) is an American poet who works exclusively in spoken word. She graduated from Wesleyan University in 1997 and uses her work to address issues of capitalism, sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, transphobia, misogyny, and patriarchy. She identifies as a lesbian, socialist feminist.
In-step
November 1, 2001
Poet for the People: An Interview with Alix Olson
By Stacy Szymaszek
The creating Change conference organizers made an astute decision when they invited spoken word poet Alix Olson to perform. She understands that her task as an artist included a commitment to social change, and the issues she addresses in her poems and in her activism are essential to the fight for a democracy with integrity. Since we are both writers, this interview was conducted by e-mail.
SS: I heard that since September 11th you and other artist have been meeting. What kinds of things are you talking about and doing?
AO: I’m luck y to be surrounded by communities of artists/activists who are using this tragic global moment as a time to analyze international politics, and re-create a world in which we might all be safer. I’m very saddened by the targeting of thinking/critical people as somehow being ‘traitors’ to freedom and the American way. I am hopeful that there are enough of us who believe that it is only by moving peacefully and carefully within these times that we will find our way out of this mess. The last meeting I went to was last week (which was a New Yorkers Say No To War meeting at our NYC LGBTQ Center) featured a speaker from the ACLU discussion the number of "foreign-looking and sounding people" who have been illegally detained and deported. There are street actions and protests being planned, literature being distributed, and mostly—networking happening. New York City is so big and diverse that it’s heartening to watch people fiend each other.
I think political artists are also at risk – I have heard that the government has shut down Rage Against the Machine’s website. So, that’s something I keep at the back of my mind. Art is considered a threat because it is a very effective tool for education, coalition-building and mass-energy building.
Our government is heading towards Sparta-status, just bulldozing through the Middle East, trampling on our civil liberties, conflating American with freedom conflating freedom with G-d, suppressing necessary debate by limiting media exposure—and all of this with their own interests in mind—while the people who care deeply about the world’s future are overwhelmed with the number of facets at stake here, the number of countries, people, issues, to be concerned about.
The National Organization for Women just filmed me, and four other feminists (eve ensler, Kathy najimy, Rebecca walker) for documentary on " The F-word (feminism) and I did begin to think and talk a little about the gendered nature of all of this: women watching in horror as men kill men, our former baseball club owner president treating this a little like a big sporting event, huge flags on pickup trucks everywhere like it’s high school football pep rally, women in Afghanistan clutching their babies as the boys go off to try to defend the little that is left of their devastated country. It’s strange that gender is rarely talked about in the context of these things: maybe it’s so obvious we don’t’ really even see it?
In terms of performance, I’m really just trying to document what I see right now, as well as read everything I can get my hands on—from places like RAWA (Revolutionary Association of Women for Afghanistan) to Z-Net, from Noam Chomsky to Barara Ehrenreich, just trying to get the full picture from the progressives that I admire. Trying to educate myself about the whole history of this culminating disaster. Hopefully, I can share what I learn and consider through my art in the coming months. I’m looking forward to these performances that are upcoming; I think people being together, feeling secure in an insecure time by just being together in a vibrant, political performative setting, will be good for all of us. I think we need to get away from our t.v. sets and find places to gather: read, think, discuss, perform together. I’m excited to be a part of that for people to do my piece.
SS: I’ve heard many poets express feeling of futility amidst our national crisis (or like Poet Laureate Billy Collins, speak of poetry as a comfort or refuge). Have you had moments of doubt about the power of language to create social change?
AO: I never doubt the power of language to change the world. I have a deep faith in verbal communication, in the ways that art has always moved people to a place unreachable by most other things. However, I do worry about who has access to language, who is granted the tools of literacy to begin with, who has the outlets, the means and production of ra4ching people on a mass level. For example, grassroots political artists, are, by the nature of our non-mainstream media ideologies, confined to more limited venues. This can be a problem.
SS: Did poetry and activism naturally synthesize for you? Was there ever one without the other?
AO: I have always been passionate about poetry, always loved rolling words that sound alike in my mouth together, I’m in awe of the verbal toolbox we have access to, concerned we don’t use it more. Performance was my true passion, feeling an audience settle in together to experience something intimate. Now, when my audience and I laugh together or feel something sad together, there is nothing else I can imagine doing with my life. Poetry is the performance technique I choose because poetry is what happens when my brain squints and focuses on the world. Politics, for me, was never about a laundry list of things I believed in, never about issues per se. More about egalitarianism and meeting peoples’ basic needs and caring about each other’s well being the way we care about our own world makes the world such a more fulfilling place to pass our time on this planet. Then, you develop the laundry list!
SS: After I went to a Chicago King’s show, and was raving about it, I found that people I thought were "in the know" had only a faint idea of what a drag king is. Why is transgenderism/gender play still met with such popular naiveté at best, intolerance at worst?
AO: It has been hard to convince this society/culture of the basic feminist assumption that women should even be allowed into the larger pre-existing structure, but it’s happening. Now, our most radical gender assertion, it seems to me, is that we must tear down that whole structure and re-envision a new world not based on gender/biological sex/sexuality, at all. Rainer Maria Rilke urges us to "be conversant with transformation".
This is scary and disconcerting for many people. We live in an unpredictable world, where boxes, labels, and groups are comforting. Unfortunately, where these are categories, there are people with the power to name those categories—and the rest of us. So, I think that gender transgressors are among the most brave people in the world. Often, when those of us who critically and emotionally are forces to re-evaluate our gender, sexuality, we are also given the opportunity to think hard about other ‘givens’.
I think that gender play is ignored by larger mass media outlets because it throws a very given structure with assumptions based on biology up for grabs. Folks at the top of the power structure do not want us to start questioning ANY given structures—capitalism, race relations, etc… otherwise, we might start demanding having a say in how to re-construct them. This is a deep belief of mine.
My Feed the Fire cohort, Neeve, is a New York City drag kind (named Pat Riach) who, with her drag king partner, tackles some very serious political issues surrounding global patriarchy (sexuality within the church, masculinity and war among them). But, all these ideas are confronted in a sexy, spirited, loving way, which is the best way to ask people to listen. It is always important to us a Feed the Fire to remember that these issues are scary for all of us, and that courage is best amassed while working in congruence and thorough compassion.
Leslie Feinberg, someone I admire greatly, calls this ‘developing a vocabulary of persuasion’. I try to remember the value of that.
SS: What are you most passionately working on now?
AO: Passionately engaged with other peoples’ words, scrambling to catch up on alternative media, and garnering all of my hope into a big ball of good fire, so that I may help myself and hopefully others, to continue on with the very necessary, difficult, and ultimately gratifying cultural work of these hard times.
SS: Is there anything else you would like Milwaukee to know about?
AO: Just that I have a new cd out Built Like That a book built like that: the word will be released soon, new t-shirts, posters and all kinds of goodies to help spread the word. I’m also looking for another booking agent! Thanks for the opportunity. See you soon!
Courtesy:
www.alixolson.com
In-step
November 1, 2001
Poet for the People: An Interview with Alix Olson
By Stacy Szymaszek
The creating Change conference organizers made an astute decision when they invited spoken word poet Alix Olson to perform. She understands that her task as an artist included a commitment to social change, and the issues she addresses in her poems and in her activism are essential to the fight for a democracy with integrity. Since we are both writers, this interview was conducted by e-mail.
SS: I heard that since September 11th you and other artist have been meeting. What kinds of things are you talking about and doing?
AO: I’m luck y to be surrounded by communities of artists/activists who are using this tragic global moment as a time to analyze international politics, and re-create a world in which we might all be safer. I’m very saddened by the targeting of thinking/critical people as somehow being ‘traitors’ to freedom and the American way. I am hopeful that there are enough of us who believe that it is only by moving peacefully and carefully within these times that we will find our way out of this mess. The last meeting I went to was last week (which was a New Yorkers Say No To War meeting at our NYC LGBTQ Center) featured a speaker from the ACLU discussion the number of "foreign-looking and sounding people" who have been illegally detained and deported. There are street actions and protests being planned, literature being distributed, and mostly—networking happening. New York City is so big and diverse that it’s heartening to watch people fiend each other.
I think political artists are also at risk – I have heard that the government has shut down Rage Against the Machine’s website. So, that’s something I keep at the back of my mind. Art is considered a threat because it is a very effective tool for education, coalition-building and mass-energy building.
Our government is heading towards Sparta-status, just bulldozing through the Middle East, trampling on our civil liberties, conflating American with freedom conflating freedom with G-d, suppressing necessary debate by limiting media exposure—and all of this with their own interests in mind—while the people who care deeply about the world’s future are overwhelmed with the number of facets at stake here, the number of countries, people, issues, to be concerned about.
The National Organization for Women just filmed me, and four other feminists (eve ensler, Kathy najimy, Rebecca walker) for documentary on " The F-word (feminism) and I did begin to think and talk a little about the gendered nature of all of this: women watching in horror as men kill men, our former baseball club owner president treating this a little like a big sporting event, huge flags on pickup trucks everywhere like it’s high school football pep rally, women in Afghanistan clutching their babies as the boys go off to try to defend the little that is left of their devastated country. It’s strange that gender is rarely talked about in the context of these things: maybe it’s so obvious we don’t’ really even see it?
In terms of performance, I’m really just trying to document what I see right now, as well as read everything I can get my hands on—from places like RAWA (Revolutionary Association of Women for Afghanistan) to Z-Net, from Noam Chomsky to Barara Ehrenreich, just trying to get the full picture from the progressives that I admire. Trying to educate myself about the whole history of this culminating disaster. Hopefully, I can share what I learn and consider through my art in the coming months. I’m looking forward to these performances that are upcoming; I think people being together, feeling secure in an insecure time by just being together in a vibrant, political performative setting, will be good for all of us. I think we need to get away from our t.v. sets and find places to gather: read, think, discuss, perform together. I’m excited to be a part of that for people to do my piece.
SS: I’ve heard many poets express feeling of futility amidst our national crisis (or like Poet Laureate Billy Collins, speak of poetry as a comfort or refuge). Have you had moments of doubt about the power of language to create social change?
AO: I never doubt the power of language to change the world. I have a deep faith in verbal communication, in the ways that art has always moved people to a place unreachable by most other things. However, I do worry about who has access to language, who is granted the tools of literacy to begin with, who has the outlets, the means and production of ra4ching people on a mass level. For example, grassroots political artists, are, by the nature of our non-mainstream media ideologies, confined to more limited venues. This can be a problem.
SS: Did poetry and activism naturally synthesize for you? Was there ever one without the other?
AO: I have always been passionate about poetry, always loved rolling words that sound alike in my mouth together, I’m in awe of the verbal toolbox we have access to, concerned we don’t use it more. Performance was my true passion, feeling an audience settle in together to experience something intimate. Now, when my audience and I laugh together or feel something sad together, there is nothing else I can imagine doing with my life. Poetry is the performance technique I choose because poetry is what happens when my brain squints and focuses on the world. Politics, for me, was never about a laundry list of things I believed in, never about issues per se. More about egalitarianism and meeting peoples’ basic needs and caring about each other’s well being the way we care about our own world makes the world such a more fulfilling place to pass our time on this planet. Then, you develop the laundry list!
SS: After I went to a Chicago King’s show, and was raving about it, I found that people I thought were "in the know" had only a faint idea of what a drag king is. Why is transgenderism/gender play still met with such popular naiveté at best, intolerance at worst?
AO: It has been hard to convince this society/culture of the basic feminist assumption that women should even be allowed into the larger pre-existing structure, but it’s happening. Now, our most radical gender assertion, it seems to me, is that we must tear down that whole structure and re-envision a new world not based on gender/biological sex/sexuality, at all. Rainer Maria Rilke urges us to "be conversant with transformation".
This is scary and disconcerting for many people. We live in an unpredictable world, where boxes, labels, and groups are comforting. Unfortunately, where these are categories, there are people with the power to name those categories—and the rest of us. So, I think that gender transgressors are among the most brave people in the world. Often, when those of us who critically and emotionally are forces to re-evaluate our gender, sexuality, we are also given the opportunity to think hard about other ‘givens’.
I think that gender play is ignored by larger mass media outlets because it throws a very given structure with assumptions based on biology up for grabs. Folks at the top of the power structure do not want us to start questioning ANY given structures—capitalism, race relations, etc… otherwise, we might start demanding having a say in how to re-construct them. This is a deep belief of mine.
My Feed the Fire cohort, Neeve, is a New York City drag kind (named Pat Riach) who, with her drag king partner, tackles some very serious political issues surrounding global patriarchy (sexuality within the church, masculinity and war among them). But, all these ideas are confronted in a sexy, spirited, loving way, which is the best way to ask people to listen. It is always important to us a Feed the Fire to remember that these issues are scary for all of us, and that courage is best amassed while working in congruence and thorough compassion.
Leslie Feinberg, someone I admire greatly, calls this ‘developing a vocabulary of persuasion’. I try to remember the value of that.
SS: What are you most passionately working on now?
AO: Passionately engaged with other peoples’ words, scrambling to catch up on alternative media, and garnering all of my hope into a big ball of good fire, so that I may help myself and hopefully others, to continue on with the very necessary, difficult, and ultimately gratifying cultural work of these hard times.
SS: Is there anything else you would like Milwaukee to know about?
AO: Just that I have a new cd out Built Like That a book built like that: the word will be released soon, new t-shirts, posters and all kinds of goodies to help spread the word. I’m also looking for another booking agent! Thanks for the opportunity. See you soon!
Courtesy:
www.alixolson.com
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