Spoken Word Artists

I've been listening to a lot queer female spoken word artists lately and I really like the poetry of Andrea Gibson, Alix Olson, and Staceyann Chin, (yea, I already know...where have I been?? They've been around for a really long time). But you know what hasn't been around for a while... this blog! So here I am talking about some really great queer poets.

I first heard Andrea Gibson when she came to Cornell, and I fell in love with her poetry then.

It's funny when I think about it now, I had only recently started going to queer events/meeting queer people at Cornell, and it was all pretty frightening. And yea, even though I sat alone for most of the night, her poetry was awesome. Her poems touch on a lot of subjects from gender norms, war, rape, relationships, and they all were pretty powerful and amazing to hear. A couple of my favorite poems of hers is "I Do" and "Blue Blanket."

Alix Olson comes to a close second to Andrea Gibson.

I first heard some of her stuff at the dorm of a friend of mine, and found her voice to be pretty nice to listen to. While Andrea Gibson sounds more intense, Alix is more sweet. Her poetry also is around the same realm as Gibson's but still pretty unique. One of my favorites of hers is "Picnic Table." I've got to say, its one of my favorite poems ever. I love how all the concepts form into this pretty sweet poem.

And last but not least! Staceyann Chin. Queer poet of color.

She too touches on a lot of the same issues as Gibson and Olson. But, she also talks about issues concerning race. She's been on Oprah, and like the other two, has found a lot of success in this field. She actually was in SummerStage this year in NYC and it was a shame to not be able to go. One of her better known poems is "Nails."

Anyway, these three poets are some of the most talented ladies that I have ever heard. Check them out!