February 28, 2003
By BRIAN MOYLAN
WE'VE COME A long way from Sappho. The most popular lesbian poet of all time, the ancient Greek lyrical wordsmith lived on the isle of Lesbos, from which the word lesbian is derived.
But we are far from the historical moment of Sappho and the type of poems that her brand of female-only love inspired. In an age of fast-moving information and free-floating ennui, there are poets such as lesbian Alix Olson.
"I see myself as 50 percent activist and 50 percent poet," Olson says, but then clarifies her position. "I never go into a room, and think, 'Here's an audience of malleable minds, and I can change the way they think and live.' Education doesn't work that way. You have to be inspired by something really personal."
For Olson, personal stories and poems aren't necessarily things that have happened to her, but the way that she sees and interprets the world, which is almost entirely through language and rhyme.
"I think in rhymes. In some ways, I always have. So, I think something, and then I write it down. I think the lens is political, I think everyone has one.
I translate the world on a moment-by-moment basis," she says. "What I can do is speak my truth and people can see that's possible and then they can speak their own truth. I think people are afraid to clarify their opinions about something, and if I can show them that they can, that's what I want to do."
THE TRANSLATION OF that world and her politics are left of center. From equal distribution of wealth to a shift in national power dynamics, Olson has nontraditional views of how she would like society to be run.
Does she have any advice for President Bush?
"I don't think he's the problem. I make lots of jokes about him, because I think he's the funny evil character in the play, but it's not the people, they're just players," she says. "I think they're evil, but it's the democratic process that's tainted."
Olson isn't one to jump on the flag-waving bandwagon; she claims that the principles we are led to believe our country was founded on are misleading.
FOR MORE INFO
Alix Olson w/ Rebecca Hart
Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Iota
2832 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA
703-522-8340
www.alixolson.com"I think our democracy is tainted, but I think democracy is great. Democracy is based on a grassroots process and we don't have that. Very few people had the power to vote when this country was founded, so to call it a democracy is a fallacy. But I think that democracy is a value system and socialism is an economic framework and I think they can coexist. You can have democracy without capitalism, which we are led to believe are linked," she says.
Olson is not only a firebrand on the stage and in her political beliefs, but after the breakup of a long-term relationship, in her personal life as well.
"Love's all about power dynamics and working within a non-monogamous relationship. I believe in [non-monogamous relationships] for me. I think my approach to people is that we don't possess each other, I think we should be free creatures," she says.
OLSON IS HAPPY to speak her truth and live as honestly as she thinks she can. "A lot of times people say, 'I don't believe in [open relationships] because you're more likely to break up.' But then they say, 'Oh, but I cheated on my girlfriend.'
I just believe in two people being together. I think it's being honest that there are people who can change your life for a moment or two."
Currently, Olson is letting some lesbian musicians change her life. She and a group of musicians have been holed up in a cabin in Woodstock, N.Y., working on her latest CD, which has yet to be titled.
"We just went with it and spent 15-hour days working in a room, and we came out with this," she says about the album, where her words are blended with the music and sound clips of everything from radio preachers to Olson's interviews with her grandmother. "We did all of it live, so we fed off of each other's energy and the word is just another instrument, but it's still spoken word poetry."
Those who hear Olson at her upcoming Iota appearance will have to wait until the CD comes out to check out Olson with the band. At the show, she will perform solo, but unlike the Sapphic poets of old, this won't be just a mere recitation.
"For me, poetry is about the body. My visceral reaction to my work when I write is very physical," she says. "I don't think
I can sit still when I read, but I don't consider it reading, I consider it performing. Performing it live is so independent."