words are powerful things they’ve been
used throughout history as weapons and
as building blocks a unites and they
destroy I love words I love the way they
look love the way they feel the way they
sound and I love the effect that they
can have on people and that’s not such a
surprising thing I mean I’m a spoken
word poet and I’m a public speaking
coach it’s the words literally my art
and expression and in my career in my
work one of the most common things that
people come to me and say is that
they’re afraid of public speaking again
that’s not such a surprising thing
either because most people class public
speaking is a fear greater than their
fear of death just to reframe that for a
second to me public speaking I mean
speaking to anybody other than myself
and actually sometimes it means speaking
to myself as well now the more I’ve
worked with these people and the more
I’ve worked with myself I’ve begun to
realize that most people aren’t afraid
of speaking and most people actually
aren’t afraid of public either what
they’re afraid of is being seen what if
I speak and they see me what if I speak
and they don’t like what they see
what if I speak and I don’t like what I
see even though I’ve been on stage for
over 20 years I still confront these
thoughts all the time every time I hit a
new audience in fact I confront these
thoughts what keeps me getting up here
what keeps me getting up on stages and
sharing my words my purpose
while I write to connect with myself
forget whatever is going on in here or
up here out and onto a page so I can see
it and I speak to connect with the world
to get whatever is going on in here and
up here out so others can see it I mean
that’s kind of why we all speak right to
get whatever is in here out to make a
connection it could be said that we’re
pretty lucky I mean we live in what is
considered to be the most connected time
in history I mean I can literally have a
thought right now and within seconds
have somebody on the other side of the
world to think the same thing just by
sending them a message I also live in
close proximity to more people now than
I’ve ever had the opportunity to do so
in the past however I think I would
argue that maybe we live in the most
disconnected time in history all you
have to do is to look at the rates of
depression of anxiety of suicide and
addiction to see that I mean as heaps of
studies and researches and TED talks and
TEDx talks about exactly that the link
of these states of experience that we
have as humans these days and how they
link to feelings of disconnection in
isolation five years ago when I arrived
to Australia I was just me my backpack
I’m a boyfriend and I was on a big
adventure
within two months the relationship had
broken down and suddenly I was thousands
hundreds of thousands of miles away from
home
away from everybody that I loved and
everything that I need to be familiar
facing that heart-wrenching sensation of
it was hunger in for connection so I
came to Melbourne and they decided to
run an event it was to be a one-off
evening of women’s spoken word and
poetry I called it mother tongue and I
expected maybe 11 people to come I
didn’t really know anybody that night we
had 75 people in that room of all
genders that events been running monthly
ever since that’s five years now and
every month we get between 50 and 80
people in that audience every month on
stage ten women get up on that stage and
they share their stories they share
stories of depression of rape of abuse
what it is to fall in love to have
dreams and visions and aspirations
these are courageous women and these are
women all kinds of women what’s so great
about mother tongue for me is it creates
a platform for every facet of what it is
to be woman so we get women from all
backgrounds we get women of all body
shapes we get women of all ages we’ve
had 12 year olds and 60 to 70 year old
women up on that stage before speaking
their tricks we’ve had straight women
without queer women we’ve had trans
women we get such a fantastic view on
that stage of what it is the experience
of what it is to be a woman some of them
have never spoken on stage before others
our professions either way they’re all
courageous women and the reason I use
the word courage and I want to just
explain this view for a minute because
courage and bravery get used as words
quite interchangeably quite a lot and
for me they’re very different things so
for you for me to know that you
understand what I’m saying I’m gonna
just define what those two words mean
for me for me when I say courage I used
the definition brought forward by brené
Brown in her TED talk the power of
vulnerability and in that talk what she
does is take the word courage and brings
it back through its etymology to its
root word Corrine
which means heart and from her research
what she says is that courage means to
tell the story of yourself with your
whole heart
now the poet you cannot imagine how
juicy that definition is to me to tell
the story of yourself with your whole
heart but as is my nature and my love of
words I then we’ve confronted with
needing to know what bravery meant so I
looked it up
bravery comes from the word bravado and
bravado means to give a face of
fearlessness that means no matter what’s
going on in here
no matter how afraid no matter how
isolated no matter how alone we feel we
hold a face of fearlessness
that’s incredible tool it’s so powerful
in times when our lives perhaps are in
danger and we need to hide our fear to
be able to show our strength however
it’s not a tool to live by for me these
women who get up on this stage are
courageous women they stand up there and
they tell the story of themselves with
their whole heart and when I see these
women on this stage I see three things
happen every single month the first is
that no matter what that woman looks
like no matter where she comes from what
body she has or what stories she’s
telling me as an audience member I get
to see myself in her I get the
opportunity to see myself in another
human being and feel connected connected
no connection and then when she gets off
the stage I have another opportunity to
see myself in her again whenever I see
her and what I like to hope is that
anytime I see another woman that reminds
me of her I get the opportunity to see
myself in her to what kind of a world
would we be living in if we were
actually seeing ourselves in each other
I don’t think we’d be able to do the
things
we are doing to each other that we are
doing to each other all over the world
and in this country if we were actually
seeing ourselves in each other the
second thing that I see happening on
that stage and in that room is when that
woman gets up on that stage and tells
her story and I see myself in her I get
permission in a society where I am
brought up to pit myself against other
women to pitch myself to compare to put
other women down or above me not only do
for example if a woman gets up on that
stage and she’s a single mother I get
permission to tell my story of what it
is to be a single mother in this world
I’m like ah my story’s relevant it’s
worthy a woman gets up there and she’s a
queer woman I get the opportunity to be
ah I have permission my story is worthy
I can tell my story I can live my story
I have permission to exist in the story
of Who I am even more fully in this
world and what a gift that is I look
around the room it’s not just me it’s
every other person in that room I see
them feeling that permission to be
themselves more the third thing that I
see happening up on that stage is that
that woman who stands there and tells
her story that courageous woman and I
mean like like I said some of these
women they’ve never spoken on a stage
before in fact some of them have never
even shared that story to their closest
friend and they’re up on that stage I’ve
had women on that stage wearing bands on
their wrists from institutions that they
left hours earlier after trying to kill
themselves and they are standing on that
stage alive telling their stories when
they walk off that stage they are
lighter something has lifted there is
connection that’s why they come up on
that stage for connection
and they go home and they don’t just go
home they come back and they sit in that
audience and they witness other women up
there and they get more permission and
they get more permission to be
themselves and over the years over the
months I see them get back up on that
stage and their stories turn from
stories of trauma and survival into
stories of empowerment and blossoming
it’s an incredible thing to watch and
this stuff doesn’t just exist on the
mother tongue stage I’ve had the
pleasure of attending and performing
events all over this world where I see
spoken word artists getting up and
sharing their stories what’s so
incredible about spoken word as an art
form if it does something pretty
profound it takes something like
literature and poetry which once only
belonged to the highly educated in the
elite and it puts it firmly in the hands
and the mouths and the hearts of the
folk of the people of voices that
normally are not heard and not listened
to it gives it to people who identify as
LGBTQ I and plus it gives it to people
of color it gives it to women it gives
it to men who are suffering from
isolation and depression it gives it to
people who don’t feel like they can
share their story and gives them a
platform to speak gives permission so
how do we take this off the stage how do
we take it into our lives like I said to
me public speaking of speaking to
anybody other than ourselves and
sometimes it’s speaking to myself as
well right so take that opportunity a
world built on bravery be courageous in
a disconnected world choose courage you
were always given that opportunity to
connect it’s an Elvis story of yourself
with your whole heart stare who you are
do you never know who is listening and
your words and your story and your
truths may well just give somebody else
too
to live another day and I think that is
[Applause]
she was 14 she was born with dreams of
stardom she’d already mastered the art
of slalom to dodge the bullets thrown by
the hush tongues of adolescence her
spirit palace her mine sharp with a
curious heart she was the perfect target
for it she danced she spent her days in
trance with the flickering of
unreachable stars they called her poppy
spent their days trying to cut her down
eventually they didn’t miss they hit she
split down the center caught in the rift
between reality and dreams she fell and
hit the ground no longer she danced it’s
been her days in trance with visions of
soaring high and studying grass she
walked smoke paved paths they called her
poppy so she’d fall on her ass but her
roots would be so she took to the street
where her width could save her from
defeat her arm stretched her thumb to
chart the path her backpack carried
heavy max that carved their mark upon
her heart she touched the star the
fallen ones just like her when needles
and smoke rings have become the cure-all
stretched on cardboard beds all lost and
found in the heart and the head all
called poppy just like her each one cut
before their prime symptoms of a society
that isn’t quite right I mean really
when did it become such a crime to shine
poppy she stared into the eyes of fallen
flowers all doped up on reasons to
escape and realize that her phages
wasn’t headed that way the minds hadn’t
begun her rise was on its way and she
followed with her eyes as the Sun
continued every day you see poppy wasn’t
her name she was born a different
but papi she became when names get
thrown by fear and greed yes
she was tall yes she was bright and
others afraid tried to smother her life
but her heart was not blood-red it was
golden like the Sun and she followed its
movement from the moment it rose until
it was done she left those streets with
an awning that every fallen flower is a
curse but this world will become
infertile if it keeps crushing all this
girls she let her back stand up straight
let her petals unfurl she would claim
back her own name she would inspire all
the world you see she is not a topic she
never has been she is a sunflower
growing and she is full of ripening
seeds and the thing about sunflower
that’s so special you see it’s
impossible to just pass one buyer
without taking a moment to dream you
know like oh well if I had a garden oh
well maybe when I get back home or maybe
I’ll plant sunflowers just so I can
watch them grow so she lives like this
leaving in her path a trail of scattered
thundershowers it’s rising with each
other to see how bright they can become
it’s turning to each other each made of
Earth and Sun and the truth of this
story the truth is that every single one
of us in this room whether we’re a copy
or a sunflower we all deserve the right to blue
used throughout history as weapons and
as building blocks a unites and they
destroy I love words I love the way they
look love the way they feel the way they
sound and I love the effect that they
can have on people and that’s not such a
surprising thing I mean I’m a spoken
word poet and I’m a public speaking
coach it’s the words literally my art
and expression and in my career in my
work one of the most common things that
people come to me and say is that
they’re afraid of public speaking again
that’s not such a surprising thing
either because most people class public
speaking is a fear greater than their
fear of death just to reframe that for a
second to me public speaking I mean
speaking to anybody other than myself
and actually sometimes it means speaking
to myself as well now the more I’ve
worked with these people and the more
I’ve worked with myself I’ve begun to
realize that most people aren’t afraid
of speaking and most people actually
aren’t afraid of public either what
they’re afraid of is being seen what if
I speak and they see me what if I speak
and they don’t like what they see
what if I speak and I don’t like what I
see even though I’ve been on stage for
over 20 years I still confront these
thoughts all the time every time I hit a
new audience in fact I confront these
thoughts what keeps me getting up here
what keeps me getting up on stages and
sharing my words my purpose
while I write to connect with myself
forget whatever is going on in here or
up here out and onto a page so I can see
it and I speak to connect with the world
to get whatever is going on in here and
up here out so others can see it I mean
that’s kind of why we all speak right to
get whatever is in here out to make a
connection it could be said that we’re
pretty lucky I mean we live in what is
considered to be the most connected time
in history I mean I can literally have a
thought right now and within seconds
have somebody on the other side of the
world to think the same thing just by
sending them a message I also live in
close proximity to more people now than
I’ve ever had the opportunity to do so
in the past however I think I would
argue that maybe we live in the most
disconnected time in history all you
have to do is to look at the rates of
depression of anxiety of suicide and
addiction to see that I mean as heaps of
studies and researches and TED talks and
TEDx talks about exactly that the link
of these states of experience that we
have as humans these days and how they
link to feelings of disconnection in
isolation five years ago when I arrived
to Australia I was just me my backpack
I’m a boyfriend and I was on a big
adventure
within two months the relationship had
broken down and suddenly I was thousands
hundreds of thousands of miles away from
home
away from everybody that I loved and
everything that I need to be familiar
facing that heart-wrenching sensation of
it was hunger in for connection so I
came to Melbourne and they decided to
run an event it was to be a one-off
evening of women’s spoken word and
poetry I called it mother tongue and I
expected maybe 11 people to come I
didn’t really know anybody that night we
had 75 people in that room of all
genders that events been running monthly
ever since that’s five years now and
every month we get between 50 and 80
people in that audience every month on
stage ten women get up on that stage and
they share their stories they share
stories of depression of rape of abuse
what it is to fall in love to have
dreams and visions and aspirations
these are courageous women and these are
women all kinds of women what’s so great
about mother tongue for me is it creates
a platform for every facet of what it is
to be woman so we get women from all
backgrounds we get women of all body
shapes we get women of all ages we’ve
had 12 year olds and 60 to 70 year old
women up on that stage before speaking
their tricks we’ve had straight women
without queer women we’ve had trans
women we get such a fantastic view on
that stage of what it is the experience
of what it is to be a woman some of them
have never spoken on stage before others
our professions either way they’re all
courageous women and the reason I use
the word courage and I want to just
explain this view for a minute because
courage and bravery get used as words
quite interchangeably quite a lot and
for me they’re very different things so
for you for me to know that you
understand what I’m saying I’m gonna
just define what those two words mean
for me for me when I say courage I used
the definition brought forward by brené
Brown in her TED talk the power of
vulnerability and in that talk what she
does is take the word courage and brings
it back through its etymology to its
root word Corrine
which means heart and from her research
what she says is that courage means to
tell the story of yourself with your
whole heart
now the poet you cannot imagine how
juicy that definition is to me to tell
the story of yourself with your whole
heart but as is my nature and my love of
words I then we’ve confronted with
needing to know what bravery meant so I
looked it up
bravery comes from the word bravado and
bravado means to give a face of
fearlessness that means no matter what’s
going on in here
no matter how afraid no matter how
isolated no matter how alone we feel we
hold a face of fearlessness
that’s incredible tool it’s so powerful
in times when our lives perhaps are in
danger and we need to hide our fear to
be able to show our strength however
it’s not a tool to live by for me these
women who get up on this stage are
courageous women they stand up there and
they tell the story of themselves with
their whole heart and when I see these
women on this stage I see three things
happen every single month the first is
that no matter what that woman looks
like no matter where she comes from what
body she has or what stories she’s
telling me as an audience member I get
to see myself in her I get the
opportunity to see myself in another
human being and feel connected connected
no connection and then when she gets off
the stage I have another opportunity to
see myself in her again whenever I see
her and what I like to hope is that
anytime I see another woman that reminds
me of her I get the opportunity to see
myself in her to what kind of a world
would we be living in if we were
actually seeing ourselves in each other
I don’t think we’d be able to do the
things
we are doing to each other that we are
doing to each other all over the world
and in this country if we were actually
seeing ourselves in each other the
second thing that I see happening on
that stage and in that room is when that
woman gets up on that stage and tells
her story and I see myself in her I get
permission in a society where I am
brought up to pit myself against other
women to pitch myself to compare to put
other women down or above me not only do
for example if a woman gets up on that
stage and she’s a single mother I get
permission to tell my story of what it
is to be a single mother in this world
I’m like ah my story’s relevant it’s
worthy a woman gets up there and she’s a
queer woman I get the opportunity to be
ah I have permission my story is worthy
I can tell my story I can live my story
I have permission to exist in the story
of Who I am even more fully in this
world and what a gift that is I look
around the room it’s not just me it’s
every other person in that room I see
them feeling that permission to be
themselves more the third thing that I
see happening up on that stage is that
that woman who stands there and tells
her story that courageous woman and I
mean like like I said some of these
women they’ve never spoken on a stage
before in fact some of them have never
even shared that story to their closest
friend and they’re up on that stage I’ve
had women on that stage wearing bands on
their wrists from institutions that they
left hours earlier after trying to kill
themselves and they are standing on that
stage alive telling their stories when
they walk off that stage they are
lighter something has lifted there is
connection that’s why they come up on
that stage for connection
and they go home and they don’t just go
home they come back and they sit in that
audience and they witness other women up
there and they get more permission and
they get more permission to be
themselves and over the years over the
months I see them get back up on that
stage and their stories turn from
stories of trauma and survival into
stories of empowerment and blossoming
it’s an incredible thing to watch and
this stuff doesn’t just exist on the
mother tongue stage I’ve had the
pleasure of attending and performing
events all over this world where I see
spoken word artists getting up and
sharing their stories what’s so
incredible about spoken word as an art
form if it does something pretty
profound it takes something like
literature and poetry which once only
belonged to the highly educated in the
elite and it puts it firmly in the hands
and the mouths and the hearts of the
folk of the people of voices that
normally are not heard and not listened
to it gives it to people who identify as
LGBTQ I and plus it gives it to people
of color it gives it to women it gives
it to men who are suffering from
isolation and depression it gives it to
people who don’t feel like they can
share their story and gives them a
platform to speak gives permission so
how do we take this off the stage how do
we take it into our lives like I said to
me public speaking of speaking to
anybody other than ourselves and
sometimes it’s speaking to myself as
well right so take that opportunity a
world built on bravery be courageous in
a disconnected world choose courage you
were always given that opportunity to
connect it’s an Elvis story of yourself
with your whole heart stare who you are
do you never know who is listening and
your words and your story and your
truths may well just give somebody else
too
to live another day and I think that is
[Applause]
she was 14 she was born with dreams of
stardom she’d already mastered the art
of slalom to dodge the bullets thrown by
the hush tongues of adolescence her
spirit palace her mine sharp with a
curious heart she was the perfect target
for it she danced she spent her days in
trance with the flickering of
unreachable stars they called her poppy
spent their days trying to cut her down
eventually they didn’t miss they hit she
split down the center caught in the rift
between reality and dreams she fell and
hit the ground no longer she danced it’s
been her days in trance with visions of
soaring high and studying grass she
walked smoke paved paths they called her
poppy so she’d fall on her ass but her
roots would be so she took to the street
where her width could save her from
defeat her arm stretched her thumb to
chart the path her backpack carried
heavy max that carved their mark upon
her heart she touched the star the
fallen ones just like her when needles
and smoke rings have become the cure-all
stretched on cardboard beds all lost and
found in the heart and the head all
called poppy just like her each one cut
before their prime symptoms of a society
that isn’t quite right I mean really
when did it become such a crime to shine
poppy she stared into the eyes of fallen
flowers all doped up on reasons to
escape and realize that her phages
wasn’t headed that way the minds hadn’t
begun her rise was on its way and she
followed with her eyes as the Sun
continued every day you see poppy wasn’t
her name she was born a different
but papi she became when names get
thrown by fear and greed yes
she was tall yes she was bright and
others afraid tried to smother her life
but her heart was not blood-red it was
golden like the Sun and she followed its
movement from the moment it rose until
it was done she left those streets with
an awning that every fallen flower is a
curse but this world will become
infertile if it keeps crushing all this
girls she let her back stand up straight
let her petals unfurl she would claim
back her own name she would inspire all
the world you see she is not a topic she
never has been she is a sunflower
growing and she is full of ripening
seeds and the thing about sunflower
that’s so special you see it’s
impossible to just pass one buyer
without taking a moment to dream you
know like oh well if I had a garden oh
well maybe when I get back home or maybe
I’ll plant sunflowers just so I can
watch them grow so she lives like this
leaving in her path a trail of scattered
thundershowers it’s rising with each
other to see how bright they can become
it’s turning to each other each made of
Earth and Sun and the truth of this
story the truth is that every single one
of us in this room whether we’re a copy
or a sunflower we all deserve the right to blue
Please follow and like us: