Is it time for us to get slammed?

Let your words be heard

As their feet hit the ground coming forward, little did we know that their words would strike the earth like boxes wrapped in tears. Each of them shed their story in different ways.  One used rich metaphors that drew lines of experience like a constellation on a star chart. Some presented their life experience like a comedy routine; others, like a rap artist. Through these various voices, they recounted how they were sexually assaulted, rejected by their family because of their sexual orientation and grew up in foster care after losing both parents.  What took place that night didn’t happen in a  counselor’s office.  It happened at a poetry slam.

Hear Here is a local organization that uses poetry as a way allowing others to freely share their life stories and to build inclusive community relationships. They conduct multiple monthly workshops, open mic nights and poetry slams for all ages. They are part of a broader national poetry slam movement, in which poets read their original work and are judged by selected members of the audience or by a panel of judges. On the night I went, they were conducting a youth semi-final poetry slam consisting of high school and college students. These poets where competing for a chance to go to a national competition in Washington, DC.

During the slam, each poet recounted personal, community and national tragedies. The dark themes of the evening were relentless and disturbing. One may question the benefits of such story telling, as no solutions or ways of moving forward were presented.  

It’s a mistake to conclude that hope is about knowing what to do next. Instead, we can be encouraged when people demonstrate tremendous courage by sharing deeply personal tragic events in their lives. There is hope when people understand that they are not alone in facing certain life circumstances. There is power in using your voice to cast the dark issues in a society into the light. There is hope when community members can be real with each other and not hide behind the facades encouraged by our culture.

Hear Here’s mantra is, “Someone is always listening.”  It’s possible we may be the only person positioned in a person’s life to hear what they have to say. Is it time for us to get slammed and listen  to each other’s stories?  One wonders how many tragedies could be prevented if we as a society did just that.