Fuck Yes Slam Poetry

alexsparks: My submission for the Write Bloody Publishing...

Sun, 05 May 2013 18:18:32 -0400

My submission for the Write Bloody Publishing Contest. Please like, share, reblog, comment, pirate, and exploit. I need as much help as I can get!

buttonpoetry: Bobby Crawford and Kieran Collier - “Legos...

Fri, 03 May 2013 22:34:37 -0400

buttonpoetry:

Bobby Crawford and Kieran Collier - “Legos (Unfinished Masterpieces)”

“Taking apart legos is like giving a blow job to someone you hate… Sometimes, you have to use your teeth.”

A group piece from Emerson College, during semifinals at the 2013 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational.

buttonpoetry: Emi Mahmoud - “People Like Us” “The worst thing...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:27:09 -0400

buttonpoetry:

Emi Mahmoud - “People Like Us”

“The worst thing about genocide isn’t the hunger, the murder, the politics, the government-paid soldiers that chase you across borders and into camps - it’s the silence.”

Emi Mahmoud, performing for Yale University at the 2013 College University Poetry Slam Invitational.

"As long as I’m safely unconsious and therefore shielded from the costs of an assault, why shouldn’t the rest of the world (or more specifically my attackers) be allowed to reap the benefits?"

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 23:04:42 -0400

"As long as I’m safely unconsious and therefore shielded from the costs of an assault, why shouldn’t the rest of the world (or more specifically my attackers) be allowed to reap the benefits?":

primal-things:

gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay:

This is a line from a blog post from a professor at the University of Rochester. My university. Where I and my friends have been catcalled, chased by drunken fratbros (no consequences for them!), and worry about going out after dark because of said drunken fratbros. I don’t want those fratbros being taught that if I’m unconscious, so long as they’re careful and don’t leave any evidence behind, it’s fine to whip it out and stick it in.

And last year the same professor published this article, wherein he agreed with Rush Limbaugh during the Sandra Fluke fiasco, but it gets even better:

If I can reasonably be required to pay for someone else’s sex life (absent any argument about externalities or other market failures), then I can reasonably demand to share in the benefits.

This is an economics professor, trying to frame his sexist, rape-apologist, slut-shaming, disgusting views as “economic arguments.” And he’s a professor - his opinion holds weight with his students, it has to.

Last year the university’s Women’s Caucus tried to protest his continued employment - it achieved nothing. Already, the University (of Rochester) is trying to cover its ass:

The University is committed to the academic freedom of our faculty and students. Their views are their own; they do not speak for the University.

In his personal blog, Professor Landsburg poses some hypothetical questions about an unconscious rape victim. He asks whether such rapes should be illegal. The University’s answer is that rape is abhorrent. It is and should be a crime.

Sexual violence is a concern on campuses across the nation. The University works very hard to combat sexual violence and to promote a culture of mutual respect.

I don’t want this cockroach of a man imparting his “wisdom” in any forum that gives him power. I want him fired, I want my university to be dragged through the mud if it has to be.

The best part is that tomorrow the University is holding a seminar on preventing assault. The university that refuses to fire a man who thinks whether I’m human or a blow-up doll depends on my state of consciousness. It’s wonderful!

Here is the HuffPo article on this. Please, try and help me get the word out. The professor’s name is Steven Landsburg, he teaches economics, he’s a shameless sexist slut shaming cockroach.

I know my university won’t respond without a shitstorm of negative media coverage, so please, help me give one to them. My friends and I are trying to contact major news networks, but they won’t give a rat’s ass if there’s not enough people who have already heard about it.

please, please, PLEASE signal boost this as much as you can!

buttonpoetry: Denice Frohman - “Dear Straight People” (WOWPS...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:06:06 -0400

buttonpoetry:

Denice Frohman - “Dear Straight People” (WOWPS 2013)

“I don’t like closets, but you made the living room an unshared space. Now I feel like a guest in my own house.”

Denice Frohman, demonstrating why she just won the Women of the World Poetry Slam. (It’s because she’s awesome.)

buttonpoetry: Natalie E. Illum - “Don’t Look at Me” “Disability...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:18:49 -0400

buttonpoetry:

Natalie E. Illum - “Don’t Look at Me”

“Disability isn’t pretty. It’s permanent captivity. It’s your brain held hostage by your own nervous system.”

Natalie Illum, performing during prelims at the 2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam.

taoofpooh: Confessions of an Uneducated Queer - Lauren Zuniga

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:24:37 -0400

taoofpooh:

Confessions of an Uneducated Queer - Lauren Zuniga

the-thaumaturgy-of-words: EVERY POET NEEDS TO WATCH THIS.

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:08:39 -0500

the-thaumaturgy-of-words:

EVERY POET NEEDS TO WATCH THIS.

spokenwordacademy: Rachel McKibbens, After School Special That...

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:48:32 -0500

spokenwordacademy:

Rachel McKibbens, After School Special

That woman with that hole in her chest

that’s me. I made the mistake of telling her

how someone broke my heart once.”

slam-revolution: Marty McConnell’s “Give Me One Good Reason to...

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 20:12:35 -0500

slam-revolution:

Marty McConnell’s “Give Me One Good Reason to Die”

carrierudzinski: The greatest group piece I have ever had the...

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:52:19 -0500

carrierudzinski:

The greatest group piece I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Denver Minor Disturbance winning Brave New Voices 2012:

Written and performed by my homies Ashlynn Damers and Amal Kassir.

carrierudzinski: My God, My God, I am a stupid selfish...

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:47:01 -0500

carrierudzinski:

My God, My God, I am a stupid selfish prayer.

New Video Thursday: “The Prayer” performed at The Bowery Poetry Club February 2012 in NYC.

spokenwordacademy: G Yamazawa, multiple time National Finalist,...

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:04:14 -0500

spokenwordacademy:

G Yamazawa, multiple time National Finalist, shares a poem as he hosts a Brave New Voices bout in San Francisco, California. The poem begins at 0:40.

I was born in the obscene geniusof the club. I was a...

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:38:21 -0400

I was born in the obscene genius
of the club. I was a chemical
hero. Slick as a greasy encyclopedia,
I strutted like a bullfighter. I learned kink

is another word for survival. learned to love
the body more for what it can do
than for what it is. how did you get this far
without knowing lust is disaster’s

good cousin, what flickers when the rest
has been burned down and blown
away? there will be a quiz.

here’s another story: I was born.
I was adored. I am in charge. I need you
to tie me down, now. call it love,
this intimate vine. this gift

of the mother. gift of the neighbor,
the uncle, gift of the whip. the dildo.
lying was my first language. I am not

ashamed. touch is not reversible. one
cannot be un-touched. are you
uncomfortable? good. then it’s begun.

go ahead and cry. to break
is to be sanctified. to find in the body
a safehouse where all your monsters
get to be raucous, bring the audience

to their feet calling what. what.
dig at the shame places. your gutter
of a cunt. your crowbar of a cock.
say the words, say fuck and wheelbarrow

and voluptuary until it all sounds
like amen, amen, amen, amen, amen,
amen, amen, amen. why despise

your own wiring? it was desire
that made you; however twisted
the originating bed, your beginning

was ferocious. quiz: what’s the difference
between a lie and a myth. answer:
the storyteller’s intention. example: I
am more bear than fruit. more leather

than lion. legend says I opened my mouth
and the world rolled out. the brine
of saliva, browbone splitting into branch,
to root. and from the cheeks, the sweetest

meat, the man, the woman, the lost
androgynous other. example: in our myth, Atlas
is a hermaphrodite. a dancer. bearded lady

in a g-string in a cage above the dance floor.
fact: there are gods who love us,
and they want us to fuck. have I earned

another story? to emerge, a world
must learn itself, then flood,
then burn. unfurl your ugly
like fists inside another’s

body. step into a skin familiar
as your mother’s bed, and
as spurned. something in you
stands up. it is like light,

or a crime. it is alive.
your turn.

Marty McConnell, “World’s Guide to the Beginning” (published in drunken boat #13)

alexsparks: Saul Williams - Black Stacey This is remarkable. I...

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 17:33:09 -0400

alexsparks:

Saul Williams - Black Stacey

This is remarkable. I haven’t listened to Saul Williams in a long time. He is without a doubt one of the best writers alive. A huge inspiration of mine.

Video

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 17:30:08 -0400

macariacondonat: wafflelephant: Sarah Kay performs “Postcards”...

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:36:12 -0400

macariacondonat:

wafflelephant:

Sarah Kay performs “Postcards” (by speakeasynyc)

I had already fallen in love with far too many postage stamps when you appeared on my doorstep wearing nothing but a postcard promise.
No, appear is the wrong word. Is there a word for sucker punching someone in the heart?
Is there a word for when you’re sitting at the bottom of a roller coaster and you realize that the climb is coming, that you know what the climb means, that you can already feel the flip in you stomach from the fall before you’ve even moved?
Is there a word for that?
There should be.

You can only fit so many words in a postcard, only so many in a phone call, only so many into space before you forget that words are sometimes used for things other than filling emptiness.
It is hard to build a body out of words. I have tried. We have both tried.

Instead of laying your head against my chest, I tell you about the boy who lives downstairs from me who stays up all night long practicing his drum set. The neighbors have complained, they have busy days tomorrow, but he keeps on thumping through the night convinced, I think, that practice makes perfect.
Instead of holding my hand, you tell me about the sandwich you made for lunch today, how the pickles fit so perfectly against the lettuce.

Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent.
Repeat the same mistakes over and over and you don’t get any closer to Carnegie Hall, even I know that.
Repeat the same mistakes over and over and you don’t get any closer. You never get any closer.

Is there a word for the moment you win tug-of-war, when the weight gives and all that extra rope comes tumbling towards you?
How even though you’ve won you still end up with muddy knees and scratches on your hands?
Is there a word for that?
I wish there was. I would’ve said it when we were finally alone together on your couch, neither one of us with anything left to say.

Still now I send letters into space hoping that some mailman somewhere will track you down and recognize you from the descriptions in my poems, that he will place the stack of them in your hands and tell you, “There is a girl who still writes you. She doesn’t know how not to.”

“practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent.”

Catalina Ferro, “Anxiety Group”

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 12:45:29 -0400

Catalina Ferro, “Anxiety Group”

buttonpoetry: Marty McConnell - “Lucky” “What astonishes me is...

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 21:14:06 -0400

buttonpoetry:

Marty McConnell - “Lucky”

“What astonishes me is not that I have survived, but that I have not come closer to dying.”

Marty McConnell, Button favorite and 2012 NUPIC champion.

spokenwordacademy: I say, ‘I am fat.’ He says, ‘No, you are...

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 23:17:29 -0400

spokenwordacademy:

I say, ‘I am fat.’ He says, ‘No, you are beautiful.’ I wonder why I cannot be both.

thestudyofmettle:

10 Honest Thoughts on Being Loved by a Skinny Boy - Rachel Wiley