[Applause]
upon stumbling by chance upon a man
waist-deep in quicksand I see that he’s
trying to say something but but I’d I
need a second to process right because I
mean it’s weird right quick Sam it’s
like a cartoon this is like going to the
zoo and seeing a mermaid so my first
response naturally is to tell him hey
I’m pretty sure that I read on the
internet somewhere that quicksand isn’t
real that this idea of a patch of
standing water that sucks a person down
into oblivion is just a tall tale right
and you know in real life yeah you get
caught in some mud or something but are
you sure you’re sinking in quicksand he
sinks my words don’t seem to have any
effect so being an open mind and
progressive individual I really wait
maybe quicksand is real so what now well
my second response upon stumbling by
chance upon a man chest deep in
quicksand is you know before I actually
do anything to make sure I have the
whole picture because what was this guy
doing out here in the jungle all alone
did he step into that quicksand on
purpose was he kind of asking for it
does he have a criminal record maybe I
should wait till all the facts come in
he sinks and being an open-minded
progressive individual I decided to give
him the benefit of the doubt at least
for now I want to help so my third
response upon stumbling by chance upon a
man neck deep in quicksand is obviously
to recite a poem to throw some spirit
energy his way to describe out loud is
just how heavy my heart is I take a
piece of paper out of my backpack with a
pen I write quicksand is bad and I’m an
ally to those who fall in it I pinned a
piece of paper to my chest I take out my
phone and I tweet when are we going to
wake up hashtag quicksand he sinks and
being an open-minded progressive
individual I decide that this isn’t
enough right that we as a society need
to address the root causes of people
sinking into quicksand so my fourth
response upon stumbling by a chance upon
a man forehead deep in quicksand is to
take a moment
to acknowledge my privilege as someone
who is not thinking in the quicksand I
vow to I don’t know take a class or or
to challenge my friends when they make
quicksand related jokes or to be more
mindful of how I navigate the world he
sinks and being an open-minded
progressive individual I decide that the
time for words has passed now is the
time for action so my fifth response
upon stumbling by chance upon a man
disappeared into we can’t allow
ourselves to forget what happened here I
know that we need to to do something
right so to educate people or to put up
a sign or to build a bridge over this
patch of quicksand I just don’t have any
wood I just have this backpack full of
paper and pens and rope what can one
person even do I imagine my lungs
filling with mud black earth brown water
the hike back to my hotel will be full
of reflection I say a prayer under my
breath it is the least
I can do
so my work is about using poems as entry
points into other conversations right I
travel to colleges and conferences and
use poems to open up dialogue around
issues we don’t always get to talk about
so I write a lot about gender and race
and class and history and power and I
think right away
one thing that art gives us especially
in those conversations is permission to
not have all the answers it’s not have
to think in this binary kind of good or
bad either-or problem solution type of
way right like the poem that I just
shared with you I’m not trying to teach
you something you don’t already know I’m
not trying to make some big political
statement it’s just about me kind of
grappling with my own insecurities and
my own uncertainties about how I engage
with the issues and you know the people
that I care about and I would imagine
that I’m not the only person in this
room right now especially today who
feels uncertain sometimes in a world
full of injustice and violence and
hatred and oppression what are we
supposed to do right and I think the
poem itself is complex because I think
part of the answer to that question is
stuff like cultivating a more
intentional social media presence and
thinking more critically about privilege
and power and and sure creating art and
striving to be a more conscientious
individual these are all good helpful
things and they’re not enough right they
may be necessary steps on the way to
enough but I think one thing that this
poem is trying to explore is how quick
we are sometimes especially in this
country to present individual solutions
to collective problems whether we’re
talking about police violence or rape
culture or climate change or economic
inequality or whatever like there’s
another layer of action that is
necessary beyond just being a better
individual right I feel like art um can
potentially be a really powerful entry
points into a conversation about
organizing which for me kind of gets it
what a collective response to collective
problems might look like activism people
working together to build mass movements
that can shift policy and culture
because you know I don’t remember
learning a lot about that and like
school you know we learn about Martin
Luther King jr. we probably don’t learn
about Ella Baker right we learn about
FDR and the New Deal we probably don’t
learn about the labor movement Mother
Jones you know thousands and thousands
of people who built and continued to
build these mass social and political
movements that have real power to change
our whole realities right and I feel
like right now especially when so many
people feel overwhelmed and powerless
that feels like a really important
conversation to be having so my talk
today it is not going to be about like
the magical power of poetry to change
people’s minds right because I believe
that the relationship between arts and
activism is much much deeper than just
arts that is about activists issues
right I think that there’s something and
we’ve heard from other speakers today
like there’s something in the creative
process itself that can illuminate and
demystify this idea of activism
especially for those of us who don’t
have a ton of experience in that realm
right and so I am a poet though and like
I can only speak for my own experience
so I’m framing this today as five things
that being a poet taught me about
activism the first one here is how I
think both artists and activists are our
translators how we take abstract things
and make them concrete right and
hopefully you remember your high school
English class right so abstract language
our ideas right like freedom and
education and family and allies ship and
activism they’re their concepts you
can’t touch them
whereas concrete language is anything
that you can see hear taste smell or
touch right and I feel like an enormous
part of the work that I do as a poet is
trying to think of creative ways to make
abstract things like say a political
issue concrete so that the audience
doesn’t just understand it on an
intellectual level but can feel it and
internalize it my favorite example of
this is on Oh like I cannot stand up
here and quote you a bunch of statistics
on climate change just because my brain
just doesn’t remember those statistics
right but what I will remember forever
is that one episode of planet Earth were
like the polar bear becomes more and
more desperate for food because its
habitat is shrinking and it gets hungry
and hungry and then it dies
because you know polar bears are cute
and that’s a sad story and my brain
processes that in a deeper way than just
the facts that’s the art side um for
activists or for aspiring activists I
think there’s some connection here in
terms of you know the first steps that
we have to take into this world and I
feel like you know when injustice
happens in the world and you look at
your Twitter feed and people might be
saying things like if only we had more
love and unity and justice and what kind
of words are those right they’re
abstract so again we translate what does
love look like in real life every day in
practice what is a moment from your
memory that captures the idea of unity
what is an action that can bring justice
we make it personal think about
self-interest think about what am I
willing to give what am I willing to
give up because I know that my abstract
identities as activists as ally as
feminists as anti-racist like none of
that means anything right what means
something are the concrete actions that
bring those labels to life in the world
and so that leads directly into the next
point here which is how once we have
these big they’re you know these these
concrete images we zoom in on them to
make them focused and specific and on
some of those just small right so for an
artist that might mean you know you
don’t write a poem about war you write a
poem about the first time you step into
your brother’s empty bedroom you don’t
write a poem about family you write a
poem about a specific moment in your
memory in which the concept of family
meant something to you and don’t tell me
what it meant you know you show me do
detail and description and just telling
that story and so for aspiring activists
here’s the connection it is okay to feel
like all of the injustice in the world
is so much bigger than you because it is
so zoom in start small start local think
about first steps right this for me is
about the difference between dismantling
the prison industrial complex and
jumping on a computer to Google who your
city and state representatives are and
what organizations are already doing
that work in your community this is
about the difference between saving the
environments
and you know maybe setting a meeting
with your college advisor to maybe get
you into some classes that might set you
on a career path to a job in which you
can help save the environment it’s about
the difference between you know knowing
the ins and outs of the specific
political philosophical strategy that is
going to end all forms of repression
everywhere and just showing up to the
March or the vigil or the rally or the
meeting even when you don’t know what
you’re doing
leads to the Third Point how we don’t
have to know everything you know for
artists that this one might be more
clear but it’s like you don’t have to
tell people’s stuff in a poem you don’t
have to have all the answers the poems
are not about giving people easy answers
they’re about I think creating space for
us to ask more questions and to think
more critically and just grapple with
ideas and similarly if you’re a you know
a young person or not so young person
who wants to get more involved in
activism and organizing I think it’s
important to note that you don’t have to
be perfect before you can like show up
you know you don’t have to know all the
fancy academic jargon or have some
special mutant superpower that you’re
gonna share with the rest of the
movement before you can before you can
be present before you can listen to
other people
before you can even just be in a room
with a bunch of other people who also
don’t know everything but who do care
not least to the fourth point how both
arts and activism are so much less about
me or you and so much more about us and
like that might sound kind of like a
platitude that my son obvious but
there’s this persistent stereotype of
like the artist the capital a artist who
was this tortured genius who barricaded
himself off in like a cabin for ten
years and then emerges with like their
novel this this beautiful glistening
shard of themselves that they share with
the rest of us and pretty much every
artist I know who has any measure of
success will tell you that art is a much
more community oriented collaborative
collective process and a lot of people
realize in terms of how like yeah you
know you write you work and then you
share and you get feedback and you work
and you give feedback and you work and
you revise and you give more feedback
and you get more feedback in you and you
work and you grow when you work you go
out to events together and you hang out
and you bounce ideas around and you work
together right and this is also what
organizing looks like this is what power
looks like everyday people joining up in
ciphers right and coding in community
organizations in student organizations
in unions in in collectives in you know
living rooms and just working together
to figure out what we have what we need
and how we are going to make it happen
any artists will tell you it is not
enough to just be brilliant right any
organizer will tell you it is not enough
to just be right about the issues we
have to be able to build and sustain
relationships with other human beings
like I got into activism because a
friend who I would listen to music with
one day just dragged me to a meeting I
got into education working because a
friend while I wrote poems with one day
dragged me to a workshop I got into
gender violence prevention work because
a friend who I play basketball with one
day dragged me to a conference and the
common thread in all of this isn’t me
it’s not that I’m some kind of
altruistic wonderful person like the
common thread is friendship
relationships you know nobody changes
the world on their own that’s how you
burn out so we build we collaborate
together so for my last point I’m
thinking a lot about how so I sometimes
go to like high schools and then teach
poetry residency I’ll be there for like
five days then on the last day on Friday
we have an in-class performance where
everyone shares what they’ve been
working on over the course of the week
and like that can be scary and that can
be nerve-racking especially if you don’t
like to be up in front of other people
talking like I can relate to that
um but you know one principle we talk
about in that space is how you know when
the water is cold right you can’t just
kind of walk slowly into it right
because that’s painful you dive in and
once you’re in is fine
the way the way that that manifests for
like young poets a lot of times is
someone will be like oh it’s really my
turn oh do I have to go next okay I
don’t know if this makes sense I kind of
want to change the title it’s like shut
up we said I would love like we love you
and support you we want to hear what was
what you what you created so like dive
in the water like
the poem right for activism you know
this one is tricky because I think first
and foremost we have to acknowledge that
activism is not a choice for everyone um
that some people are you know born in
the water so to speak that survival is a
kind of activism and I think there’s
this other group of people um for whom
it is more of a choice it’s a conscious
decision to you know make our values and
our principles concrete in the world to
stand up for what we believe in to dive
in and do something and I think for that
group some of the same principle applies
in the sense that it isn’t about waiting
and so you know the exact right moments
or until you have all the answers it is
kind of about a sense of urgency about
making a commitment and diving into the
water and I realize that there’s totally
a danger in what I’m saying here alright
this point is not about action for
actions sake it’s not about diving in
uncritically or half-cocked or you know
it’s used the metaphor to dive in
without looking to see who’s already in
the water or if there even is water in
the first place
I’m just thinking about how poets have
to ask ourselves Who am I like what is
my story to tell how can I contribute to
our larger collective story without
speaking for other people or over other
people and I think you know activists
have to ask these same kinds of
questions right because it isn’t always
about how can you be a bold leader in a
catalyst it’s very often about how can
you be a better follower and that can be
a difficult thing for some people to
wrap their heads around but it’s really
really important right and so I mean
let’s get concrete like what does that
actually mean in real life let’s zoom in
right I think one you know there’s no
one-size-fits-all answer to this
question of like what do we do about all
the injustice in the world right I think
depending on what communities we belong
to and where we’re at and the context
around us for some people diving in
means you find that organization doing
the work that you’re passionate about
and you show up and you get involved for
other people it might mean you support
organizing work through donations
through leveraging access to funding and
resources in space and attention and
networks right for other people it’s
about how we can integrate an activist
practice into our everyday lives so not
just going out to where the rallies and
the marches are happening
but bringing their energy and their
substance into our social circles and
our families and our schools and
workplaces and places of worship right
that could be start an anti-racist book
club that could be you know raise money
for the local rape crisis center write a
letter to the editor to your local
newspaper once a week could be have a
difficult conversation with a family
member support someone who’s running for
City Council or mayor or Parks Board or
run for local office yourself right
there’s this whole list of different
ways that this can be concrete in the
world and that brings us back to the
beginning which is another strategy that
poets use right to end where you started
because the journey is very often not
linear but I’m so thinking about this
question of like what is enough alright
how do we create change because whenever
I start listing stuff off like that none
of those things are enough either by
themselves Braddock misses you know a
final thing that that poetry taught me
about activism that no poem exists in a
vacuum right no poem has to be the whole
story I think poetry is less a film and
more photograph it’s a piece of this
larger thing and I think art in general
is about illuminating this conversation
this relationship between personal and
universal between micro and macro
between our individual selves and our
like collective realities and I think on
a fundamental level activism is also
about that relationship about this idea
that just because you don’t have the
power to run out the front door and
magically fix everything
it doesn’t mean that you don’t have
power especially when we work together
so that’s my time but I think another
part of being an artist is like breaking
the rules so I’m going to share one
little little little last thing um I
started with a poem about the power that
I sometimes feel like I don’t have I’m
gonna end with something I wrote it’s
absurd peace something that I wrote as a
reminder to myself about the power that
I or more specifically the power that we
have so there are no stories told in a
vacuum there is no prophecy lighting our
way there was just a lot of darkness to
be afraid of so it’s a good thing we are
not afraid
there was no Superman in that phone
booth there was no reward in our faith
there was
no one who can save us so it’s a good
thing we don’t need to be saved there
are no starships and low Earth orbit no
aliens to save us from ourselves there
is no voice willing to speak for us –
it’s a good thing we know how to yell
there was no chosen one no destiny no
fate there’s no such thing as magic
there was no light at the end of this
tunnel so it’s a good thing we brought
matches thank you
[Applause]
upon stumbling by chance upon a man
waist-deep in quicksand I see that he’s
trying to say something but but I’d I
need a second to process right because I
mean it’s weird right quick Sam it’s
like a cartoon this is like going to the
zoo and seeing a mermaid so my first
response naturally is to tell him hey
I’m pretty sure that I read on the
internet somewhere that quicksand isn’t
real that this idea of a patch of
standing water that sucks a person down
into oblivion is just a tall tale right
and you know in real life yeah you get
caught in some mud or something but are
you sure you’re sinking in quicksand he
sinks my words don’t seem to have any
effect so being an open mind and
progressive individual I really wait
maybe quicksand is real so what now well
my second response upon stumbling by
chance upon a man chest deep in
quicksand is you know before I actually
do anything to make sure I have the
whole picture because what was this guy
doing out here in the jungle all alone
did he step into that quicksand on
purpose was he kind of asking for it
does he have a criminal record maybe I
should wait till all the facts come in
he sinks and being an open-minded
progressive individual I decided to give
him the benefit of the doubt at least
for now I want to help so my third
response upon stumbling by chance upon a
man neck deep in quicksand is obviously
to recite a poem to throw some spirit
energy his way to describe out loud is
just how heavy my heart is I take a
piece of paper out of my backpack with a
pen I write quicksand is bad and I’m an
ally to those who fall in it I pinned a
piece of paper to my chest I take out my
phone and I tweet when are we going to
wake up hashtag quicksand he sinks and
being an open-minded progressive
individual I decide that this isn’t
enough right that we as a society need
to address the root causes of people
sinking into quicksand so my fourth
response upon stumbling by a chance upon
a man forehead deep in quicksand is to
take a moment
to acknowledge my privilege as someone
who is not thinking in the quicksand I
vow to I don’t know take a class or or
to challenge my friends when they make
quicksand related jokes or to be more
mindful of how I navigate the world he
sinks and being an open-minded
progressive individual I decide that the
time for words has passed now is the
time for action so my fifth response
upon stumbling by chance upon a man
disappeared into we can’t allow
ourselves to forget what happened here I
know that we need to to do something
right so to educate people or to put up
a sign or to build a bridge over this
patch of quicksand I just don’t have any
wood I just have this backpack full of
paper and pens and rope what can one
person even do I imagine my lungs
filling with mud black earth brown water
the hike back to my hotel will be full
of reflection I say a prayer under my
breath it is the least
I can do
so my work is about using poems as entry
points into other conversations right I
travel to colleges and conferences and
use poems to open up dialogue around
issues we don’t always get to talk about
so I write a lot about gender and race
and class and history and power and I
think right away
one thing that art gives us especially
in those conversations is permission to
not have all the answers it’s not have
to think in this binary kind of good or
bad either-or problem solution type of
way right like the poem that I just
shared with you I’m not trying to teach
you something you don’t already know I’m
not trying to make some big political
statement it’s just about me kind of
grappling with my own insecurities and
my own uncertainties about how I engage
with the issues and you know the people
that I care about and I would imagine
that I’m not the only person in this
room right now especially today who
feels uncertain sometimes in a world
full of injustice and violence and
hatred and oppression what are we
supposed to do right and I think the
poem itself is complex because I think
part of the answer to that question is
stuff like cultivating a more
intentional social media presence and
thinking more critically about privilege
and power and and sure creating art and
striving to be a more conscientious
individual these are all good helpful
things and they’re not enough right they
may be necessary steps on the way to
enough but I think one thing that this
poem is trying to explore is how quick
we are sometimes especially in this
country to present individual solutions
to collective problems whether we’re
talking about police violence or rape
culture or climate change or economic
inequality or whatever like there’s
another layer of action that is
necessary beyond just being a better
individual right I feel like art um can
potentially be a really powerful entry
points into a conversation about
organizing which for me kind of gets it
what a collective response to collective
problems might look like activism people
working together to build mass movements
that can shift policy and culture
because you know I don’t remember
learning a lot about that and like
school you know we learn about Martin
Luther King jr. we probably don’t learn
about Ella Baker right we learn about
FDR and the New Deal we probably don’t
learn about the labor movement Mother
Jones you know thousands and thousands
of people who built and continued to
build these mass social and political
movements that have real power to change
our whole realities right and I feel
like right now especially when so many
people feel overwhelmed and powerless
that feels like a really important
conversation to be having so my talk
today it is not going to be about like
the magical power of poetry to change
people’s minds right because I believe
that the relationship between arts and
activism is much much deeper than just
arts that is about activists issues
right I think that there’s something and
we’ve heard from other speakers today
like there’s something in the creative
process itself that can illuminate and
demystify this idea of activism
especially for those of us who don’t
have a ton of experience in that realm
right and so I am a poet though and like
I can only speak for my own experience
so I’m framing this today as five things
that being a poet taught me about
activism the first one here is how I
think both artists and activists are our
translators how we take abstract things
and make them concrete right and
hopefully you remember your high school
English class right so abstract language
our ideas right like freedom and
education and family and allies ship and
activism they’re their concepts you
can’t touch them
whereas concrete language is anything
that you can see hear taste smell or
touch right and I feel like an enormous
part of the work that I do as a poet is
trying to think of creative ways to make
abstract things like say a political
issue concrete so that the audience
doesn’t just understand it on an
intellectual level but can feel it and
internalize it my favorite example of
this is on Oh like I cannot stand up
here and quote you a bunch of statistics
on climate change just because my brain
just doesn’t remember those statistics
right but what I will remember forever
is that one episode of planet Earth were
like the polar bear becomes more and
more desperate for food because its
habitat is shrinking and it gets hungry
and hungry and then it dies
because you know polar bears are cute
and that’s a sad story and my brain
processes that in a deeper way than just
the facts that’s the art side um for
activists or for aspiring activists I
think there’s some connection here in
terms of you know the first steps that
we have to take into this world and I
feel like you know when injustice
happens in the world and you look at
your Twitter feed and people might be
saying things like if only we had more
love and unity and justice and what kind
of words are those right they’re
abstract so again we translate what does
love look like in real life every day in
practice what is a moment from your
memory that captures the idea of unity
what is an action that can bring justice
we make it personal think about
self-interest think about what am I
willing to give what am I willing to
give up because I know that my abstract
identities as activists as ally as
feminists as anti-racist like none of
that means anything right what means
something are the concrete actions that
bring those labels to life in the world
and so that leads directly into the next
point here which is how once we have
these big they’re you know these these
concrete images we zoom in on them to
make them focused and specific and on
some of those just small right so for an
artist that might mean you know you
don’t write a poem about war you write a
poem about the first time you step into
your brother’s empty bedroom you don’t
write a poem about family you write a
poem about a specific moment in your
memory in which the concept of family
meant something to you and don’t tell me
what it meant you know you show me do
detail and description and just telling
that story and so for aspiring activists
here’s the connection it is okay to feel
like all of the injustice in the world
is so much bigger than you because it is
so zoom in start small start local think
about first steps right this for me is
about the difference between dismantling
the prison industrial complex and
jumping on a computer to Google who your
city and state representatives are and
what organizations are already doing
that work in your community this is
about the difference between saving the
environments
and you know maybe setting a meeting
with your college advisor to maybe get
you into some classes that might set you
on a career path to a job in which you
can help save the environment it’s about
the difference between you know knowing
the ins and outs of the specific
political philosophical strategy that is
going to end all forms of repression
everywhere and just showing up to the
March or the vigil or the rally or the
meeting even when you don’t know what
you’re doing
leads to the Third Point how we don’t
have to know everything you know for
artists that this one might be more
clear but it’s like you don’t have to
tell people’s stuff in a poem you don’t
have to have all the answers the poems
are not about giving people easy answers
they’re about I think creating space for
us to ask more questions and to think
more critically and just grapple with
ideas and similarly if you’re a you know
a young person or not so young person
who wants to get more involved in
activism and organizing I think it’s
important to note that you don’t have to
be perfect before you can like show up
you know you don’t have to know all the
fancy academic jargon or have some
special mutant superpower that you’re
gonna share with the rest of the
movement before you can before you can
be present before you can listen to
other people
before you can even just be in a room
with a bunch of other people who also
don’t know everything but who do care
not least to the fourth point how both
arts and activism are so much less about
me or you and so much more about us and
like that might sound kind of like a
platitude that my son obvious but
there’s this persistent stereotype of
like the artist the capital a artist who
was this tortured genius who barricaded
himself off in like a cabin for ten
years and then emerges with like their
novel this this beautiful glistening
shard of themselves that they share with
the rest of us and pretty much every
artist I know who has any measure of
success will tell you that art is a much
more community oriented collaborative
collective process and a lot of people
realize in terms of how like yeah you
know you write you work and then you
share and you get feedback and you work
and you give feedback and you work and
you revise and you give more feedback
and you get more feedback in you and you
work and you grow when you work you go
out to events together and you hang out
and you bounce ideas around and you work
together right and this is also what
organizing looks like this is what power
looks like everyday people joining up in
ciphers right and coding in community
organizations in student organizations
in unions in in collectives in you know
living rooms and just working together
to figure out what we have what we need
and how we are going to make it happen
any artists will tell you it is not
enough to just be brilliant right any
organizer will tell you it is not enough
to just be right about the issues we
have to be able to build and sustain
relationships with other human beings
like I got into activism because a
friend who I would listen to music with
one day just dragged me to a meeting I
got into education working because a
friend while I wrote poems with one day
dragged me to a workshop I got into
gender violence prevention work because
a friend who I play basketball with one
day dragged me to a conference and the
common thread in all of this isn’t me
it’s not that I’m some kind of
altruistic wonderful person like the
common thread is friendship
relationships you know nobody changes
the world on their own that’s how you
burn out so we build we collaborate
together so for my last point I’m
thinking a lot about how so I sometimes
go to like high schools and then teach
poetry residency I’ll be there for like
five days then on the last day on Friday
we have an in-class performance where
everyone shares what they’ve been
working on over the course of the week
and like that can be scary and that can
be nerve-racking especially if you don’t
like to be up in front of other people
talking like I can relate to that
um but you know one principle we talk
about in that space is how you know when
the water is cold right you can’t just
kind of walk slowly into it right
because that’s painful you dive in and
once you’re in is fine
the way the way that that manifests for
like young poets a lot of times is
someone will be like oh it’s really my
turn oh do I have to go next okay I
don’t know if this makes sense I kind of
want to change the title it’s like shut
up we said I would love like we love you
and support you we want to hear what was
what you what you created so like dive
in the water like
the poem right for activism you know
this one is tricky because I think first
and foremost we have to acknowledge that
activism is not a choice for everyone um
that some people are you know born in
the water so to speak that survival is a
kind of activism and I think there’s
this other group of people um for whom
it is more of a choice it’s a conscious
decision to you know make our values and
our principles concrete in the world to
stand up for what we believe in to dive
in and do something and I think for that
group some of the same principle applies
in the sense that it isn’t about waiting
and so you know the exact right moments
or until you have all the answers it is
kind of about a sense of urgency about
making a commitment and diving into the
water and I realize that there’s totally
a danger in what I’m saying here alright
this point is not about action for
actions sake it’s not about diving in
uncritically or half-cocked or you know
it’s used the metaphor to dive in
without looking to see who’s already in
the water or if there even is water in
the first place
I’m just thinking about how poets have
to ask ourselves Who am I like what is
my story to tell how can I contribute to
our larger collective story without
speaking for other people or over other
people and I think you know activists
have to ask these same kinds of
questions right because it isn’t always
about how can you be a bold leader in a
catalyst it’s very often about how can
you be a better follower and that can be
a difficult thing for some people to
wrap their heads around but it’s really
really important right and so I mean
let’s get concrete like what does that
actually mean in real life let’s zoom in
right I think one you know there’s no
one-size-fits-all answer to this
question of like what do we do about all
the injustice in the world right I think
depending on what communities we belong
to and where we’re at and the context
around us for some people diving in
means you find that organization doing
the work that you’re passionate about
and you show up and you get involved for
other people it might mean you support
organizing work through donations
through leveraging access to funding and
resources in space and attention and
networks right for other people it’s
about how we can integrate an activist
practice into our everyday lives so not
just going out to where the rallies and
the marches are happening
but bringing their energy and their
substance into our social circles and
our families and our schools and
workplaces and places of worship right
that could be start an anti-racist book
club that could be you know raise money
for the local rape crisis center write a
letter to the editor to your local
newspaper once a week could be have a
difficult conversation with a family
member support someone who’s running for
City Council or mayor or Parks Board or
run for local office yourself right
there’s this whole list of different
ways that this can be concrete in the
world and that brings us back to the
beginning which is another strategy that
poets use right to end where you started
because the journey is very often not
linear but I’m so thinking about this
question of like what is enough alright
how do we create change because whenever
I start listing stuff off like that none
of those things are enough either by
themselves Braddock misses you know a
final thing that that poetry taught me
about activism that no poem exists in a
vacuum right no poem has to be the whole
story I think poetry is less a film and
more photograph it’s a piece of this
larger thing and I think art in general
is about illuminating this conversation
this relationship between personal and
universal between micro and macro
between our individual selves and our
like collective realities and I think on
a fundamental level activism is also
about that relationship about this idea
that just because you don’t have the
power to run out the front door and
magically fix everything
it doesn’t mean that you don’t have
power especially when we work together
so that’s my time but I think another
part of being an artist is like breaking
the rules so I’m going to share one
little little little last thing um I
started with a poem about the power that
I sometimes feel like I don’t have I’m
gonna end with something I wrote it’s
absurd peace something that I wrote as a
reminder to myself about the power that
I or more specifically the power that we
have so there are no stories told in a
vacuum there is no prophecy lighting our
way there was just a lot of darkness to
be afraid of so it’s a good thing we are
not afraid
there was no Superman in that phone
booth there was no reward in our faith
there was
no one who can save us so it’s a good
thing we don’t need to be saved there
are no starships and low Earth orbit no
aliens to save us from ourselves there
is no voice willing to speak for us –
it’s a good thing we know how to yell
there was no chosen one no destiny no
fate there’s no such thing as magic
there was no light at the end of this
tunnel so it’s a good thing we brought
matches thank you
[Applause]
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