We all know that BC has hundreds of on-campus organizations from dance teams to debate clubs and so on. As a result, there are some groups that are able to stay under the radar and remain undetected to those who don’t genuinely look for them. An example of this is the spoken word culture on campus. There are groups like BC Slam that hold events and workshops for spoken word artists but there are also the rest of us who just write poetry for fun or to share our experiences.
I’ve been writing poetry for as long as I can remember but it wasn’t until I attended an event BC Slam held last year that I decided to give this spoken word thing a try. The first poem I wrote was right after the event and it was about a boy, so it will probably never see the light of day. But the second one I wrote was about my younger sister and helping her understand her worth in a society that rarely treats black as beautiful. I read that poem for OLAA (Organization of Latin American Affairs)’s Rev Cafe last semester and gained a little bit of confidence in my spoken word ability which led to me participating in JUICE during Arts Fest.
For those of you who may not have heard JUICE is a spoken word event that takes place during Black Family Weekend and Arts Fest. It was started by rising senior Osamase Ekhator as a space for black students on campus to verbally express their experiences through art. The name JUICE refers to a slang term for power. As a result, this event allows a group of people who usually don’t have as much power to have their voices be heard. This year, the poems focused on the portrayal of Blacks in the media and on campus which everyone took in their own direction. My poem focused on the Nina Simone film controversy and my relationship to the singer while others focused on film, news coverage of black deaths, cultural appropriation or other aspects of black culture.
As a poet, JUICE gave me a safe space to share something that was very personal to me and it also gave me a chance to learn from other truly amazing poets. If you missed JUICE this year, it’s something you won’t want to miss next year because I’m sure it will only get bigger and better from here.