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Aris Kian, performing at WoWPS 2020 in Dallas, TX
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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)
0:02
everyone tells me
0:04
don’t be afraid to take up space they do
0:07
not see how much of me already fills the
0:09
room
0:09
first their idea of me walked in before
0:12
i did
0:13
said she should be loud she should carry
0:15
the conversation for us
0:17
said black girls be a token i can cash
0:20
out be
0:20
the black friend i can reference when
0:22
she’s not around
0:24
my anxiety is always on my left she
0:26
thinks
0:27
faster than i speak my doubt she’s on my
0:30
right
0:31
to take a compliment to chew on and spit
0:33
back up
0:34
my morning afternoon and midnight
0:36
depression form a line in front of me
0:38
hold hands like the saddest game of red
0:40
rover anytime someone comes too close my
0:44
fear is composed of three of me
0:46
me number one had to convince us to come
0:48
up here me number two had to convince us
0:50
to write this
0:51
me number three told one and two i’d
0:53
fail in every line
0:55
there goes the extrovert who wants
0:57
everyone to love me by the first
0:58
handshake
0:59
i see the introvert who wants to go home
1:01
when i walk off the stage
1:03
my ego okay my ego’s actually ate meg
1:06
the stallions twerking in the back like
1:07
shoot a
1:08
[Applause]
1:09
but my self-esteem is tina belcher from
1:11
bob’s burgers like but what if you’re
1:13
not
1:14
they tell me take up space they do not
1:17
see that i am more than they could ever
1:18
fathom
1:19
and what is god if not three of
1:21
themselves in one am i not made in their
1:23
image
1:24
if i learned anything from the trinity
1:25
it’s that godliness is having multitudes
1:28
in oneself
1:28
each one capable each one worthy of
1:31
praise and lovers
1:32
of all of us no one sees how long it
1:34
took to love
1:35
all of me i fill a room without having
1:38
to enter
1:39
and my name has its own gravitational
1:40
pull they tell me
1:42
take up space do you not see that i am a
1:44
planet
1:45
that i contain a universe and all five
1:47
five of me i am space
1:49
you can’t take nor have it taken from me
1:51
black girl be down to earth
1:52
black girl be gravity black girl don’t
1:54
mind making space for other people be
1:56
lucky i share it with you
1:57
i didn’t have to do that instead of
1:59
telling me what to take tell me thank
2:00
you instead
2:11
you
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
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