Poetry has been a way of expressing oneself to others throughout its existence. To this day, poetry is still used as a portal to communicate and send a message across through language, rhyme, and voice. The poets below are using poetry to express the oppression of being a woman and/or a person of color. The twelve videos in this list are being shared through social media outlets to raise awareness of issues mostly pertaining to minorities in the United States.
Belissa Escoloedo, Zariya Allen, and Rhiannon McGavin performed their poem of the problems with the current American education system at The Queen Latifah Show, garnering more than six million views.
2. Halloween
Halloween: a holiday where women are slut-shamed for wearing revealing outfits when, to begin with, are not given many outfits to choose from. Four girls from Washington D.C. use Halloween in their performance poem to attack the sexism women encounter because of how they are dressed.
3. Afro-Latina
Elizabeth Acevedo, an Afro-Latina, captures the feeling of being an often forgotten and shamed demographic in the Americas. Some powerful verses include: “Our stories cannot be checked into boxes. They are in the forgotten, the undocumented,” and “We [Afro-Latinos] are the unforeseen children. We are not a cultural wedlock. We are too kinky for Spain and too wavy for dreadlocks, so our palms tell the cuentos [tales] of many tierras [lands].”
4. What Kind of Asian Are You?
Alex Dang captures the feelings upon being asked “What kind of Asian are you?” Dang gives an insightful, yet humorous, answer to this question with sarcasm of the stereotypes of Asian people. Dang explains the struggles of being Asian-American and the origin of multiple Asian stereotypes. Some striking verses include: “Let me tell you all the things you don’t want to know [about Asian culture]” and “Every time you confuse me with some other nationality that I might share features to is stripping away my individuality.”
5. Explaining My Depression To My Mother
Sabrina Benaim’s performance poem captures the conversation between a daughter who suffers from depression and a mother who does not understand mental illness. A few memorable lines include: “It’s just not that much fun having fun when you don’t want to have fun, Mom” and “Mom still doesn’t understand [depression]. Mom, can’t you see? Neither can I.”
6. Fantastic Breasts and Where to Find Them
Brenna Twohy’s performance poem, with one million views, uses Harry Potter fanfiction as an example of true erotica as compared to the misogynistic ideologies media portrays in a heterosexual relationship.
7. Feminism
Ashia Ajani, Tolu Obiwole, Abby Friesen-Johnson, and Alexis Rain Vigil explore intersectional feminism by having two black women, a white woman, and a Latina woman perform this poem, in order to express that feminism only makes progress with the collaboration of white women and women of color.
Denice Frohman performs her poem “Dear Straight People” to explore race, sexuality, and gender in less than four minutes, garnering almost two million views. Frohman uses humor and bold words to express her passion for equality and inclusiveness of people who do not identify as heterosexual or cisgender.
Tolu Obiwole and Ashia Ajani perform a poem about being a black woman in a majority white university. The poems calls out to racist remarks and the invalidation of a black woman’s individuality when she is forced to become the “token black friend,” “a box checked yes for ethnic,” and “space left over the university’s diversity quota.”
10. Fake Deep
Written by Cecile Emeke and performed by Michelle Tiwo, Emma Carryl, Stephanie Levi-John, Naomi Ackie, Nneka Okoye, and Modupe Salu, this poem focuses on black feminism and addresses black and non-black men. The almost ten-minute performance poem tackles different forms of misogynoir, anti-black sexism faced by black women. Memorable lines in the poem include: “I collect both male and white tears, mix with some orange juice and drink them for breakfast” and “Why do you have to put on woman down to prop another one up? Forcing us all into a competition, but none of us signed up. Competition is cancelled, because your opinion, yeah… no one gives a fuck.”
11. When The Fat Girl Gets Skinny
Blythe Briad uses her experience of having an eating disorder to bring awareness to fat-shaming, expressing how people automatically assume skinny means healthy, when in fact, Briad was mentally and physically sick, which caused her to lose weight.
12. To JK Rowling, from Cho Chang
Rachel Rostad takes the voice of Cho Chang from Harry Potter to tell J.K. Rowling what was more than problematic about the portrayal of the Asian character Cho Chang. Some powerful verses from Rostad’s poem are: “Let me fulfill your diversity quota. Just one more brown girl mourning her white hero. No wonder Harry Potter’s got yellow fever. We giggle behind small hands and ‘no speak Engrish.’” And “What else could a man see in me? What else could I be but what you made me? Subordinate. Submissive. Subplot.”