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Spoken Word on Spotify

Until recently, when I looked for Spoken Word on Spotify, I got a lot of Levi The Poet, Shane Koyczan, and Neil Hilborn. Now these poets are great, and I appreciate a lot of their content. But they are also all white dudes. The human experience - the American experience - is so much more broad than any white man can express. 

 But then I found out that Sarah Kay was part of a compilation called 27: The Most Perfect Album. Then I found out that Andrea Gibson has a bunch of content on Spotify, and most of it is set to pretty music! Then I found out that Button Poetry started making Best Of albums and putting them on Spotify! Huzzah! 

 Sure, I could figure out how to make playlists on youtube of all my favorite Button videos, buuuuuuut I'm not gonna. I'm on Spotify more often than I'm on youtube, and Spotify doesn't have ads. So, if you're like me, and you love Spotify and Spoken Word and the opportunity to understand perspectives that are different from your own, please enjoy browsing my Spoken Word Playlist and the descriptions that follow:


I'm going to talk about 9 poems, because that's how many would fit in the screen shot. 

 1) First on the list is To the Woman with the Jesus Necklace by Ollie Schminkey. Ollie is a gorgeous trans goth artist with a face full of piercings that a stranger in Goodwill decided to comment on. This piece is so incredibly important. Christians need to understand the consequences of their words. Christians need to understand that shaming others isn't ever helpful, and it is always hurtful. 

 2) Second is a poem from another member of the LGBTQ community, Andrea Gibson. The poem is Orlando, and it's a heart-broken response to the Pulse Night Club shooting. We need to keep talking about mass shootings in America. We need to keep talking about safe spaces for Queer people. We need to keep talking about the treatment of LGBTQ youth by their families, the ways we feel we are dead to our families long before we actually die. 

 3) 14th Amendment by Sarah Kay. You probably know Sarah from her Ted Talks, and if you don't, you should absolutely check them out. This is a poem about Japanese Interment, and it is especially poignant now with daily human rights abuses occurring at immigration detention centers. 

 4) Sabrina Benaim wrote the collection Depression and Other Magic Tricks. The poem of hers that I have included in this playlist is What I Told the Doctor, the Second Time. There are still people who don't understand depression and anxiety. I think this poem is a beautiful, helpful description. 

 5) Melissa Lozada-Oliva calls ME out in her poem Yosra Strings off My Mustache. I am the white girl who proudly displays my armpit hair and says, "Why can't you love yourself?" I'm sorry. I was so unaware of what body hair removal meant for brown women. But this poem and the rest of her work is about more than body hair. She asks and answers and asks again what it means to be brown in America. 

 6) Then Rudy Francisco in Adrenaline Rush explains a bit about what it is to be black in America. Rudy has published a number of collections. His latest is Helium. May we always seek to truly listen when black men speak their truths. 

 7) and 8) are both about being fat, but they are from opposite sides of the experience, so to speak. Blythe Baird talks about how the world celebrated her eating disorder in When the Fat Girl Gets Skinny. Rachel Wiley talks about how the world doesn't want her to exist the way that she exists in The Fat Joke. Both women are accomplished artists with published collections, and their work deserves your attention. 

 9) I'm ending with a poem that puzzled me. Olivia Gatwood in Liberty paints a portrait of America that is honest and unsettling. I can recognize it as true, but still ask, "Why?" What an incredible haunting this poem is giving me. Olivia Gatwood has said and done so many important things in her career as an artist and educator. Please give her some of your time. 

 So there's a taste of some of my favorites. Repay my kindness by sharing some of your favorites with me! Please! I'm eager for more! Gimme Gimme Gimme! 

 And as always, if you appreciate this piece, please leave me a tip. 
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