A spoken word play and dance performance called “Your silence is Lethal Our Movement is Loud” took place on Thursday and Friday the 17th and 18th. It covers topics such as mental health, racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying and more.

The students have been working on the play for about 9 weeks with guest director Keno Evol. All of the poems were written and performed by students. Although they had a director they got to self directed a lot “We’re very self governed” said junior Emma Mingo.

Finally after 9 weeks of hard work they performed it on the 17th and 18th.  The play had 5 chapters. The first was mental health. The first part starts with them in therapy group and no one wants to talk. When they start talking, the students speak about depression. “I would do anything to feel perfect,” said a student in the play.  

The next chapter is about racism. “Racism: prejudice privilege, power.” The students read their poems one specifically stuck out to me where Teresa Baker says “lucky, my skin is light enough and my hair is thin enough” This was one of my favorite chapters because it was so powerful to hear the students of color speaking their truth. A line I love is where a student says “my life is not for you to take and you cannot question my blackness”.

The next chapter is bullying and it was very short. There was only one scene. In it they talked about people being called the r slur. Next, they cover sexism. They go from catcalling, to misogyny, to rape and victim blaming.  “Your words are like knives in her ears”  

“I have ran across the field just to make a touchdown on your ego.”

“R-A-P well the last letter isn’t important we’ve screamed it a million times anyway”

Chapter 5 is homophobia. It starts out with a “diversity meeting”.The scene is funny because they talk and it’s like making fun of people who think they are super understanding and but it shows that really they don’t know the half of it.

At the end the some of the poets shared their individual work about all kinds of different things. “The next time you utter the word woman make sure you put some respect on it.” There is a poem dedicated to all the people who are transitioning. People talk about mixed slurs, labels, stereotypes and expectations.

Overall I thought all of the spoken word pieces were amazing and I would love to see it again. Unfortunately for me and probably lots of others, their closing night was on the 18th.