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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 5, 2002)
My 5, 2002 PEOPLE ............... ▼............... lam poet Alix Olson announced during a Portland appearance last year that she was bom in Bethlehem, and I Lesbian feminism ushers in a poet thought, "Just like the other for the new millennium. Beware, savior.” this isn’t y o u r m oth er’s poetry. It’s not as much of a stretch as it sounds. Olson, by L isa B radshaw . CS*- who makes three stops in Ore gon this month, takes the stig ma out of modem feminism; as she belts out her anger at patriarchy, corporations and oppression in its zillion-and- one-fonns, you can literally see the strength of conviction welling up in the audience. Her work has been credit ed for linking generations of feminists. After a perfor mance a few years back for a National Organization for Women chapter, its founder approached her and said, “1 feel like I can die now.” That, Olson tells me, beaming, “was the best compliment I ever got.” T he 26-year-old New Yorker (who hails from • • • ’ , Bethlehem, Pennsylvania ) •m / started slamming just a few / .< years ago at the city’s Nuyor- ican Poets Café, the renowned venue where the art form was bom. She was § soon on its slam poetry team, § i» ì* « helping win the national A l ix O ls o n championship in 1998. s la m * in P o r tla n d 3 Olson followed that up and Eugene œ with her own personal win: th is m o n th OutWrite’s 1999 National Poetry Slam Champion. She now hits the road regularly to entertain audiences wood). In the spring of 2001 she released her in colleges, clubs and festivals the world over. first CD, Built Like That, which was soon fol For slam virgins: Begun by Puerto Rican lowed by the cover of Ms. magazine. writers on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, it’s a mixture of theater and rhythmic speech with H i think I really communicate best through traditional poetic forms; particularly good stam 1 rhythm,” asserts Olson, who’s had a love mers can captivate a crowd in a way difficult I affair with theater her entire life. “I started for conventional poetry readings. Pieces are acting when I was, like, 7. The poetry was often focused on social issues such as racism something 1 did on the side, and 1 always...felt and the vast American economic divide. connected to it, but 1 never really understood that you could perform it.” Judges of all competitions— big and small— are randomly chosen from the audience. So she stuck to theater but had, shall we say, a few theoretical issues. “I was performing Olson, the daughter of two political scien in so many male playwrights’ plays, and I was tists, is slamming her way to grassroots art leg just so sick of them,” she exclaims, noting most end. She’s shared the stage with Alix Dobkin, of the roles were as the girlfriend/wife. “Oh my Pete Seeger, Michael Moore and Meryl Streep God, the girlfriends are always bad!” W hen a (a commemoration of the death of Karen Silk- S The feminist savior R p % W e can meet all of your mortgage lending needs. Free preapproval over the phone, first time buyer, zero down payment, complicated credit, all loan types, cashout writer wants a play to “make it and really be circulated,” she explains, “then they’re guaranteed to have pretty bad female parts.” T hen during her senior year at Wesleyan University in C onnecticut, she met poet Donna Kate Rushin (“T h e Bridge Poem”), who described performance poetry. Soon Olson had a women’s spoken word troupe put together “so that I could read my stuff and test it out and hear what other women were doing in college.” After gradua tion, she hit the Nuyorican, and the rest is riot poet-gnrl feminist history. ast summer, Olson spent a few days in the Rose City, along with then-partner Neeve, who co-wrote and co-performs a few pieces, and guitarist Chris Pur£ka (“our unpaid intern”). T he three filled up In Other Words— women were standing in the back, spilling out onto Hawthorne Boulevard. It was practically the lesbian social event of the season. She received an introduction and came forward in shiny red pants, studded belt, hair sticking up all over— then got right to work: showtime. “W e’re from New York,” she begins, relating the story of heading to perform at the Oregon Country Fair, “and we thought it would be pigs and cows.” The audience chuckles, fully aware of Eugene’s annual hippy-inspired arts and performance festival. “So we’re like driving there with the biggest trepidation...I don’t know where we’re going; it’s a bunch of farmers sitting around. We were totally ner vous...we were, like, we should just put on our dungarees, you know, and like call them that. Like totally nervous. And we show up and there’s all these dykes and kids with fairy out fits on. And we’re like OK, we’re home.” The audience roars while she jumps into that trademark slam with the confidence of a heavyweight fighter in a lightweight ring. I believe misogyny and patriarchy are clos et homo lovers and they screw over their sisters 'cause they're scared to screw each other I believe H arriet Tubm an should be on the dollar bill We've had our fill o f w hite boy fa ces, tim e to change places I believe Hillary, not B ill, should have worn the crow n T hey could have learned from Ja c k and Jill w hich one w ould break it and fall down Although familiar with the material, Portland audiences co n tinue coming back. Sometimes L Mortgage Specialists (503) 635-0joi www.RoseCItyMtg .COITI chrismee@rosecitynitg.coni ...I'd d eclare the independence o f clitoris to shining clitoris proclaim the em ancipation o f all cunts and tell dicks this: You’re being drafted for the big solution stand erect, be proud you're part o f the cunt revolution 111 have a specific identity as a feminist les- I bian,” Olson says. “Therefore, I have a I very strong audience to tap into.” She’s probably the only full-time traveling slam poet, which she ascribes partially to this niche— there’s always somewhere to stay and always a supportive audience. Sh e’s also fully aware of her own status and abilities. “I have access to media probably because I’m white and because I learned how to work m edia.... I came out of an established class. I went to college and learned how to work the system. Most [poets] have full-time jobs that hinder them. I have a lot of support from my fam ily...I’ve gotten grants; 1 know how to write grants because I’ve been privileged.” Regardless o f class, a lot o f traditional poets out there refuse to acknowledge slam ming as poetry. “I love what I do, and I love the art that it is, and I don’t care what it’s called because I love it so much that I would defend it no matter what,” Olson contends. “S o many art forms are dominat ed ...b y this understanding o f what art is by the upper class...ju st because it’s not highfa lutin to o tin ’ and because people can under stand it doesn’t mean it’s not good a rt...th e definition o f art needs to be extended in our culture. ” j n A lix O lson appears with Doria Roberts and Turiya Autry 9 :3 0 p.m . July 10 at Berbati’s Pan, 231 S.W. Ankeny St. Olson and Roberts present Queer Stock, Queer Soup, a benefit concert for the Sexual Minority Youth Recreation Center, 7 p.m . July 16 at 2100 S.E. Belmont St. The pair can be found 9 p.m . July 12 at Eugene’s C afé Par - adiso, 115 W. Broadway. ve have really really big gunners rive the neighbor* something Christopher Mee Rose Cl - - - nil you’ll get a poem you’ve never heard before, but mostly they want to hear the same ones— over and over. Being democratic by nature, the artist asks for requests. Invari ably, there are cries for the Olson anthem “C unt Cuntry.” I've decided to start Cunt Cuntry w ith our own Cuntstitution let our liberated clit bells ring out the cunts are coming it's the cunt revolution! to really t a i v about. 1 KH. AX X SANI 71 RSO\ CISTUS DESIGN NURSERY Travel Arrangements Tailored to Your Needs 6547 SW Beovertoo-HilW«!« Hwy Portland, Oregon 97225 (RiMgli West Stopping Center) 503-292-0675 fix 503-292-9386 1-888-317-8886 elint@woritoeeentt. cent www.worldaeeents.eom «n i
