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Frankie Kubena, performing at Rustbelt 2019 in St. Louis, MO.
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Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.
We seek to showcase the power and diversity of voices in our community. By encouraging and broadcasting the best and brightest performance poets of today, we hope to broaden poetry’s audience, to expand its reach and develop a greater level of cultural appreciation for the art form.
Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)
00:06
I bite my tongue every time a man calls sexual assault victims liars.
00:12
This is not a metaphor.
00:14
I have literally been spitting out blood ever since men learned how to speak.
00:20
When the sun sets,
00:22
you are all the men in dark alleys I was warned about.
00:25
Some days, you lurk in the concrete and street lights of my own bed.
00:29
I keep having the same nightmare.
00:32
Here, men listen to me like they do in waking hours,
00:36
which is to say they don’t.
00:38
Once I was drunk at a high-school party,
00:41
and a boy said he would kiss me if he didn’t respect my boyfriend so much.
00:45
Once I was drunk at a high-school party,
00:47
and I did not have a boyfriend,
00:49
so the boy did not ask.
00:51
I have journeyed to the edges of myself and back
00:54
to satisfy insatiable men.
00:56
Here is to all the hours I have spent crying to no one.
01:00
Men don’t seem to understand that the messes they leave
01:02
do not magically disappear.
01:05
And I am tired of cleaning up both dirty laundry on the floor
01:09
and the pieces of myself that men have found inconvenient.
01:13
To be human is to take up space.
01:16
To be woman is to be more than the times I’ve said yes.
01:19
I mean, when I am not there for your consumption,
01:23
I still exist.
01:25
Today, my presence is bull in a china shop,
01:28
and I am embracing every shatter.
01:31
I am every time I was told to be quiet,
01:33
but I have forgotten how to take commands.
01:35
I am so tempted to believe, in a world where I am not afraid,
01:40
that today, just for a minute, I am not.
01:45
Years ago, a man stole the word no from my mouth
01:50
and hid it in today,
01:53
as in I just relearned my own self-worth.
01:56
And I will be an interruption to this tragedy.
02:00
Our joy is all we have to fight with.
02:03
So let’s be so happy,
02:06
let’s own our own bodies so damn loud
02:09
we drown out the ignorance with all this freedom.
02:15
(cheers and applause)
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
***
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