Social Justice Event

I had been thinking about what I would do for my social justice event and it came to me that I should go to one of the many events that are held where I work, the public library in Pawtucket. When I saw that we were going to have a Poetry Slam held in our auditorium I thought that that would be a perfect social justice event. The event was hosted by Ray Chattelle who is from the "From the RIP" Productions, a production company in Pawtucket, RI. This was my first time ever going to a poetry slam but thankfully he explained the layout of the night. The participants, or poets, would perform their work and be judged by the audience and the five judges. Each poem had to be an original work by the poet, and each poet would get about three minutes to read/perform one poem. The judges would then score from 0-10, the highest and lowest scores are usually dropped and only the middle 3 scores count. I was surprised by how many people were actually there. It was a group of around 30 people, not including the judges, host, or participants. There was only five poets who participated that night, seeing as it was the first time the library held a poetry slam. As always there was a diverse group of people in the audience and a pretty diverse group of poets. I recognized one of the poets, most of the audience, and all the judges as library patrons. This also surprised me because I realized that I had judged these people and would not think they would be interested in an event like this.

Finally the event began and the host, Ray Chattelle started with one of his more popular poems From the RIP. I found him to be a very charismatic and articulate speaker which if a person were to just look at him they wouldn't have thought the same. He was dressed in modern fashion, with a big gold chain and a tattoo on his neck. It just proved the point that just because a person looks a certain way does not mean they will not be smart, or articulated, or even that they have to act the way that they look. I connected this man to Delpit because the minute he began speaking I thought that he obviously had to have been taught the rules and codes of power. I felt like he was the type of person who was taught the proper ways to make it in life but decided against following them exactly and tried to make his own way.

Next the five poets were up. The first two were both women with blonde hair, one was a teenager and the other I would guess was in her twenties. The teenage girl, Stacy, spoke about the pressures of dating in this day in age and said she was "more than a piece of meat". It was her first time performing and I thought she was very brave for actually getting up there. Her total score was a 19. I learned that at a poetry slam there was no clapping but snapping of the fingers for good jobs, at first I felt a little weird just sitting there snapping but then I got into it with the other audience members. The woman, Beth, was up next, her poem was about growing up in Pawtucket and pushing past the nay-sayers and becoming great like she was meant to be, her score was a 22. I found her story to really be connected to Christensen, not in the sense that her poem was against the stereotypes in television or movies, but it was against the stereotypes made against her in school. Her poetry was a way for her to "talk back" against these stereotypes. It was a way for her to be her own person without the judgements or ideals that might have been put onto her by society.

The next person up was Kyle who did his poem Life's Choices. He wrote about deciding what is wrong and right in life and how as he has grown up things in his life has changed. One of his lines was he "remember when I didn't have to worry about walking down the street worrying about guns, drugs, and street thugs". He also talked about his cousin passing away, not really explaining what might have happened, it made me wonder if it had to do with the drugs or street thugs he talked about. He wrote about wanting to make better decisions and to have a better life. His story reminded me a lot of Kozol and the lives of the people he told about. I could picture Kyle as the little boy who witnessed someone dying on the sidewalk and just wanting a different life for himself. Kyle ended up being the runner up and received a score of 24. After Kyle was an older man, John, who did his poem which was in memory of his brother who died of cancer. It was a nice poem and he received a 21, I think it scored so low because he did not perform it as well as some of the other poets.

The last person up was another teenage boy, Jeffrey, who did his poem I Have Seen It All which was about how he's grown up and he's seen a lot but hasn't seen it all. Part of his poem was about teachers and how he has "seen teachers go beyond their requirements and solely if only to connect with that kid". This made me happy that he has seen teacher like that, who go above and beyond and who have been there for him. He also talked about the environment and how some people say one thing to help the environment but then do another that would go towards destroying it. He ended with saying that he hoped one day when he was on his death bed he could finally say that he had seen it all. He ended up winning, with 27 points and I thought he definitely deserved it. He was almost as charismatic as the host, and he really got into his poem. He also had serious parts and some humorous parts, it was just very versatile.

I really enjoyed this event, and I'm glad that in a way this class forced me to go to something like this because otherwise I probably would have never have gone to a poetry slam. I never would have found out that they are really fun and interesting to go to. I think everyone should go to one at some point in their lives, its a lot of fun. For some more information on Poetry Slams held in Providence, click here. Make sure you click on the links above to see some of the videos of the poets.