on safe space and slam
This is for anyone who is a poet, runs a venue, or attends poetry slams semi-regularly: do you have any guidelines about maintaining the slam as a safe space?
In any open forum, there is the capacity for sexism, racism, homophobia; for oppression; for threats; etc. And while freedom of speech is paramount to the success of slam, it can also be a huge problem in terms of making the audience and artists feel comfortable. Over the three years that I have been involved in the slam community, I have seen amazing work from lots of artists who have challenged systems of power. I have also seen artists who, through their poetry or their public persona, make the slam scene "unsafe" for people who are outside the white, middle-class, cisgendered, heterosexual norm. (For a decent definition of safe space from a women's health community, see here.)
We all grow up in a society that is racist, sexist, heteronormative (and sometimes homophobic), and classist. None of us are perfect citizens of anti-oppression, and I don't think that artists should be expected to advance a "progressive" agenda. I do think, however, that it's important that everyone feel safe.
As examples of lack of safety: there are women who have stopped going to slams because they were being hit on aggressively by older men who are organizers, venue managers, veteran poets, etc. There are transfolk who are told that they're using the wrong bathroom because they're not "real" men or women. I have seen a poet physically and overtly threaten another poet from the stage with his words.
I almost hesitate to post this, because the intention is not to point fingers. My intention is to open a discussion among people who love this art, to talk about how you shape community values. I know that PSI has a code of honour. How do local poetry scenes think about safe space?
Comments are thoroughly encouraged.
In any open forum, there is the capacity for sexism, racism, homophobia; for oppression; for threats; etc. And while freedom of speech is paramount to the success of slam, it can also be a huge problem in terms of making the audience and artists feel comfortable. Over the three years that I have been involved in the slam community, I have seen amazing work from lots of artists who have challenged systems of power. I have also seen artists who, through their poetry or their public persona, make the slam scene "unsafe" for people who are outside the white, middle-class, cisgendered, heterosexual norm. (For a decent definition of safe space from a women's health community, see here.)
We all grow up in a society that is racist, sexist, heteronormative (and sometimes homophobic), and classist. None of us are perfect citizens of anti-oppression, and I don't think that artists should be expected to advance a "progressive" agenda. I do think, however, that it's important that everyone feel safe.
As examples of lack of safety: there are women who have stopped going to slams because they were being hit on aggressively by older men who are organizers, venue managers, veteran poets, etc. There are transfolk who are told that they're using the wrong bathroom because they're not "real" men or women. I have seen a poet physically and overtly threaten another poet from the stage with his words.
I almost hesitate to post this, because the intention is not to point fingers. My intention is to open a discussion among people who love this art, to talk about how you shape community values. I know that PSI has a code of honour. How do local poetry scenes think about safe space?
Comments are thoroughly encouraged.