loud voices are more important can you
hear me loud voices are more important
can you hear me
novices are more important they tell me
that labas are more important because
the quiet ones are still water that run
deep and we don’t want a fish in we
don’t want to dive in and we don’t want
to know what they’re thinking
loud voices when election campaigns and
poetry slams quiet ones write poems and
notebooks on folds of pages keep them
under the bed until they find someone
worthy enough to read them read them
read me read you read the books we are
told we cannot read read the words we
cannot say read read read to us we to
each other eat our children read because
it’s not about how loud your voices are
how quiet your voice is the point is you
have a voice and you need to use it
hi my name is Liz irani tea Silva on
most days I’m a journalist on every
other day I am a spoken word poet and I
have a question if I told you right now
that this is a safe space would you
believe me in my 27 years of existence
many people have walked into my life and
declared as a space as safe to me when I
was four my father moved my entire
family from Portland to Subang Jaya we
moved into a terraced house with a
playground 200 meters away it eventually
became a gated and guarded neighbourhood
with smoke alarms in place and a regular
police patrol he called it our home he
called it our safe space and I believed
him until I realized that no amount of
fire drills could save my family from
each other
in secondary school geography class I
learned that the Peninsular Malaysia is
at one of the most strategic locations
in the world situated alongside the
Straits of Malacca and the South China
Sea just outside the Pacific Rim of fire
my country is declared safe from most
natural disasters but we never talk
about whether we are safe within the
confines of our border lines or whether
our classrooms are a space that we can
be ourselves in without being bullied
every August and September the leaders
of my country remind me that the word
safe is a noun with many synonyms that
are not necessarily in the same
dictionary safe now from Iran a Singh
Banjara colonialism safe noun censorship
saving face national security safe noun
Merdeka Merdeka Merdeka but every other
day I am asking myself the question is
my country safe for me is it safe for
the truth to be told
as a poet I am told that the safest
place is within a poem and every day I
try to believe that even though
sometimes I don’t understand what that
necessarily means in every place in this
world there is a poetry open mic on the
highest floor of a shop lot or in
underground bomb shelters or in
someone’s kitchen and in these unlikely
spaces you will find people of all
languages of all ages and you will hear
their poems and they will tell you their
stories I write poetry without
compromise I write poetry because it is
the only way I know how to talk about
what is important to me when a poem is
born onto a page or a stage for three
minutes the poets and the audience are
invited into a safe space designed for a
truth to exist all eyes are on the poets
in all ears are on the poem and for
three minutes we exist in the same truth
in the same narrative in the same space
no one needs to call it a safe space
because it is understood it could be a
big truth or a tiny truth in my poems I
write about boys and loving I read about
girls and unloving I read about what it
means to be a woman what it means to be
an Indian woman a Malaysian Indian woman
and sometimes I also write about
baskin-robbins jamocha almond fudge ice
cream with extra fudge and extra almonds
in all its glory and sin but it will
spark a conversation because when you
write your truths in your poems and
speak them out you invite more people to
experience your most honest self and in
turn they become more aware of their own
narrative and what matters to them no
matter how loud your voice is
quiet your voices the poem will prevail
and someone in the room will say hey I
felt that or hey we really need to talk
about this and for a little while we are
not alone I believe that we need to
create more safe spaces and this does
not require us to build higher walls or
metal gates are longer declarations we
can achieve this with a poem anyone
anyone of you can write a poem and it
doesn’t have to write them and it
doesn’t have to have profound meaning a
poem can choose step out of a closet and
talk about the colors of a rainbow a
poem can be a Sadhna up we see a four
stanza manifesto about something that
happened to you
a poem can be an ultimate rap verse to
call up pretentious hipsters or a chorus
line about cultural appropriation or a
bilingual verse about the gentrification
of ss15 and the lack of soya bean trucks
all a poem has to be is honest in every
theory of this world you will hear poems
from people who look like you and the
ones who don’t you will read your poems
to them and they will all snap their
fingers and say hey thanks I really
needed to hear that in my seven years of
writing and performing poetry I have
learned to find the safety in my words
and every time I am on stage I wish to
put forth that safety for others for a
long time I thought that all of us
equally have the same amount of words to
choose from but in 2009 following our
country’s most prominent legal battle
also known as the a la pan I realized
that a word can be revoked from my
vocabulary
this begs the question of what words are
mine and what words are yours and what
words are ours but you see this word
continues to exist for as long as I am a
citizen of the slang of state for as
long as I sing along to the State anthem
this word will continue exist so I wrote
this poem this poem is for the word I
cannot say this poem is for the child I
used to be standing straight in my
school assembly singing along to the
Solano State anthem with a silence
between its words and so I invite you
into the space and into this poem this
poem is called blank Dooley young maja
Mulia sur la ma the artist ah
landed can you see apple 1ku rakia
Mohandas to Bauer Dooley to one
Blanc was what they told me to fill in
instead of the a word or two hon or God
or Jesus or Buddha Oh Bravo Vishnu Shiva
Lakshmi or Sarris buddy we’ll figure it
out eventually but for now it’s blank
that they told me the little girl in the
navy blue pinafore to say every time she
stood up straight and sang with all her
heart remember when we get to that part
you say blank which is be silent and
then finished the rest maybe that’s why
she never became a singer instead she
was a poet who still struggled to
memorize words of her for her to recite
and not realize deeper meanings and
understand why she had to spoil the
rhythm of the song because they decided
what was right from wrong but never told
her what to say when someone asked how
come you never say blank as a sheet of
paper she wrote down her name age and
classification of which blank she
preferred to bow her head to she was I
and I wondered if blank existed and what
blank looked like did blank wear long
dresses are a suit and tie or the blank
speak English Tamil Chinese or Malay I
was blank here to stay during sunny days
and stormy weather I was never sure if
Blake could spot me out of the seven
billion people or hear my voice against
the wines and whimpers of believers
asking Dao wishes to be granted but is
they are blank different from my blank
or are we all just blank trying to fill
in the blank we keep quiet
all that we do not understand comprehend
the fragments of experience through open
eye meditation and the sound of silence
resonating oh as I put my palms together
in front of colorful deities for 10
years but saying our Father who art in
heaven when I know deep down that the
only attention
I was vying for was from my father who
was upstairs taking a shower who
educated me and explained that Islam is
a profound religion whose worshipers
need no location of worship to worship
just a direction and cautioned me never
to Tramp on Hungry Ghost offerings on
sidewalks taught me that Christmas is
more important that Santa Claus and if
we lit candles by the altar we would be
blessed and that every temple is a GPS
antenna to give us better reception to
the higher power which I still refer to
as blank and I believed every threat of
if you cross this line that prepared to
meet your maker but what will I tell my
children if they were made out of love
from one man’s blanket another woman’s
like not knowing which black they really
belong to cuz blank it’s not a word
blank it’s not a state of my blank is
what we’re still waiting to define the
divine but I don’t know when and I don’t
know how till then I
[Applause]
hear me loud voices are more important
can you hear me
novices are more important they tell me
that labas are more important because
the quiet ones are still water that run
deep and we don’t want a fish in we
don’t want to dive in and we don’t want
to know what they’re thinking
loud voices when election campaigns and
poetry slams quiet ones write poems and
notebooks on folds of pages keep them
under the bed until they find someone
worthy enough to read them read them
read me read you read the books we are
told we cannot read read the words we
cannot say read read read to us we to
each other eat our children read because
it’s not about how loud your voices are
how quiet your voice is the point is you
have a voice and you need to use it
hi my name is Liz irani tea Silva on
most days I’m a journalist on every
other day I am a spoken word poet and I
have a question if I told you right now
that this is a safe space would you
believe me in my 27 years of existence
many people have walked into my life and
declared as a space as safe to me when I
was four my father moved my entire
family from Portland to Subang Jaya we
moved into a terraced house with a
playground 200 meters away it eventually
became a gated and guarded neighbourhood
with smoke alarms in place and a regular
police patrol he called it our home he
called it our safe space and I believed
him until I realized that no amount of
fire drills could save my family from
each other
in secondary school geography class I
learned that the Peninsular Malaysia is
at one of the most strategic locations
in the world situated alongside the
Straits of Malacca and the South China
Sea just outside the Pacific Rim of fire
my country is declared safe from most
natural disasters but we never talk
about whether we are safe within the
confines of our border lines or whether
our classrooms are a space that we can
be ourselves in without being bullied
every August and September the leaders
of my country remind me that the word
safe is a noun with many synonyms that
are not necessarily in the same
dictionary safe now from Iran a Singh
Banjara colonialism safe noun censorship
saving face national security safe noun
Merdeka Merdeka Merdeka but every other
day I am asking myself the question is
my country safe for me is it safe for
the truth to be told
as a poet I am told that the safest
place is within a poem and every day I
try to believe that even though
sometimes I don’t understand what that
necessarily means in every place in this
world there is a poetry open mic on the
highest floor of a shop lot or in
underground bomb shelters or in
someone’s kitchen and in these unlikely
spaces you will find people of all
languages of all ages and you will hear
their poems and they will tell you their
stories I write poetry without
compromise I write poetry because it is
the only way I know how to talk about
what is important to me when a poem is
born onto a page or a stage for three
minutes the poets and the audience are
invited into a safe space designed for a
truth to exist all eyes are on the poets
in all ears are on the poem and for
three minutes we exist in the same truth
in the same narrative in the same space
no one needs to call it a safe space
because it is understood it could be a
big truth or a tiny truth in my poems I
write about boys and loving I read about
girls and unloving I read about what it
means to be a woman what it means to be
an Indian woman a Malaysian Indian woman
and sometimes I also write about
baskin-robbins jamocha almond fudge ice
cream with extra fudge and extra almonds
in all its glory and sin but it will
spark a conversation because when you
write your truths in your poems and
speak them out you invite more people to
experience your most honest self and in
turn they become more aware of their own
narrative and what matters to them no
matter how loud your voice is
quiet your voices the poem will prevail
and someone in the room will say hey I
felt that or hey we really need to talk
about this and for a little while we are
not alone I believe that we need to
create more safe spaces and this does
not require us to build higher walls or
metal gates are longer declarations we
can achieve this with a poem anyone
anyone of you can write a poem and it
doesn’t have to write them and it
doesn’t have to have profound meaning a
poem can choose step out of a closet and
talk about the colors of a rainbow a
poem can be a Sadhna up we see a four
stanza manifesto about something that
happened to you
a poem can be an ultimate rap verse to
call up pretentious hipsters or a chorus
line about cultural appropriation or a
bilingual verse about the gentrification
of ss15 and the lack of soya bean trucks
all a poem has to be is honest in every
theory of this world you will hear poems
from people who look like you and the
ones who don’t you will read your poems
to them and they will all snap their
fingers and say hey thanks I really
needed to hear that in my seven years of
writing and performing poetry I have
learned to find the safety in my words
and every time I am on stage I wish to
put forth that safety for others for a
long time I thought that all of us
equally have the same amount of words to
choose from but in 2009 following our
country’s most prominent legal battle
also known as the a la pan I realized
that a word can be revoked from my
vocabulary
this begs the question of what words are
mine and what words are yours and what
words are ours but you see this word
continues to exist for as long as I am a
citizen of the slang of state for as
long as I sing along to the State anthem
this word will continue exist so I wrote
this poem this poem is for the word I
cannot say this poem is for the child I
used to be standing straight in my
school assembly singing along to the
Solano State anthem with a silence
between its words and so I invite you
into the space and into this poem this
poem is called blank Dooley young maja
Mulia sur la ma the artist ah
landed can you see apple 1ku rakia
Mohandas to Bauer Dooley to one
Blanc was what they told me to fill in
instead of the a word or two hon or God
or Jesus or Buddha Oh Bravo Vishnu Shiva
Lakshmi or Sarris buddy we’ll figure it
out eventually but for now it’s blank
that they told me the little girl in the
navy blue pinafore to say every time she
stood up straight and sang with all her
heart remember when we get to that part
you say blank which is be silent and
then finished the rest maybe that’s why
she never became a singer instead she
was a poet who still struggled to
memorize words of her for her to recite
and not realize deeper meanings and
understand why she had to spoil the
rhythm of the song because they decided
what was right from wrong but never told
her what to say when someone asked how
come you never say blank as a sheet of
paper she wrote down her name age and
classification of which blank she
preferred to bow her head to she was I
and I wondered if blank existed and what
blank looked like did blank wear long
dresses are a suit and tie or the blank
speak English Tamil Chinese or Malay I
was blank here to stay during sunny days
and stormy weather I was never sure if
Blake could spot me out of the seven
billion people or hear my voice against
the wines and whimpers of believers
asking Dao wishes to be granted but is
they are blank different from my blank
or are we all just blank trying to fill
in the blank we keep quiet
all that we do not understand comprehend
the fragments of experience through open
eye meditation and the sound of silence
resonating oh as I put my palms together
in front of colorful deities for 10
years but saying our Father who art in
heaven when I know deep down that the
only attention
I was vying for was from my father who
was upstairs taking a shower who
educated me and explained that Islam is
a profound religion whose worshipers
need no location of worship to worship
just a direction and cautioned me never
to Tramp on Hungry Ghost offerings on
sidewalks taught me that Christmas is
more important that Santa Claus and if
we lit candles by the altar we would be
blessed and that every temple is a GPS
antenna to give us better reception to
the higher power which I still refer to
as blank and I believed every threat of
if you cross this line that prepared to
meet your maker but what will I tell my
children if they were made out of love
from one man’s blanket another woman’s
like not knowing which black they really
belong to cuz blank it’s not a word
blank it’s not a state of my blank is
what we’re still waiting to define the
divine but I don’t know when and I don’t
know how till then I
[Applause]
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