October 2, 2002

Alix Olson returns to Lansing

By ELAINE YAW

Alix Olson returns to the Lansing area for the second time in six months. The first visit was to close out the first Ladyfest Lansing back in April. The second is this Friday, for a performance at Common Grounds Coffeehouse at Akers Hall on MSU’s campus.

Who is Alix Olson?

For starters, she is a kick-ass spoken word artist. She’s been a writer and actor since she can remember. She started getting up on stage and performing her unique style of poetry just shy of five years ago. She is also a feminist and an activist.

I first heard of her at the 2001 Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, which she returned to this summer, with a spot in the opening night ceremonies. This isn’t a big deal to those who don’t go to the festival. But those who do know that it is.

Olson’s been criss-crossing the nation, traveling to college campuses (some extremely conservative and her stories about those are hilarious and sad) and other small venues, with about 240 shows planned for this year.

When she returned our call on Monday, she was hanging out at the airport in Portland, Ore. From there she was headed to Nebraska for shows in Omaha and Hastings.
Friday she’ll be here.

Here are some Alix Olson facts:
She lives in Brooklyn, but grew up in a small, conservative Pennsylvania town that she didn’t name.

“I have blue hair right now, and when I go back, someone has a little comment,” Olson said.
“Last week someone said ‘did someone scare you?’ I didn’t understand, I thought maybe you turn blue when someone scares you.”

She has a degree in political science from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. “I also took a lot of women’s studies.”

After college, she moved to New York and “fell in the love with the energy.” She started going to the Nuyorican Café, which has “a long history with poetry, I just sort of fell in love with it.

“I always read my work aloud – in different contexts,” she said. “I was really focused on performing. I think it’s hard to take a risk. Combining my work was a challenge. I think I had so many different kinds of feelings about what was going on in the world – as a lesbian, as a feminist . . . as a white woman trying to understand racism.”

Where does she get her inspiration and energy?

“I think it’s important to seek out alternative media,” she explained. “I do a lot of Internet research. I have subscriptions to 20 different magazines. It’s a privilege to have this type of work. I try to translate some of that news into something artistic.”

She does it well. In her work she looks at consumerism and materialism. “When I walk into a Shop Rite, I feel this immediate urge to do a piece because I’m so overwhelmed by all the products,” she said.

She stands up for the rights of women. In our phone conversation, I was struggling that morning, and she picked me up. Her energy just oozes and fills the rest of us up. Making us realize we can all do something, no matter how great or how small.

“I think it’s surprising that we live in a world that is not about expressing individuality and alternative ideas. I think once you do it, you break that pattern for yourself and you get on a roller coaster ride and you can’t get off.

“We’ve been taught to shut up and listen – that’s why it’s hard to break the old white boys’ network.”

Thanks to people like Olson and other artists she meets along the way, more and more people are learning that they can bring change.

Coming to East Lansing with Olson is documentarian Hilary Goldberg, who’s doing a film on not just Olson but “the movement and the energy,” Olson said. Goldberg filmed Ani DiFranco’s recently released documentary “Render.”

“I don’t know shit about filming,” Olson said, “I try to keep my input limited. We have so many experiences on the road, so many people doing great work. Union workers, journalists, artists. A place like Nebraska and Wyoming, they don’t know there’s this movement. Not that they are ignorant. They just don’t get the information.” Now, hopefully, they will.

Back in April, the question was asked “Fifty years into the feminist movement, do women need their own stage?” Fifty years my ass, I said. But to answer the question: Yes. And women like Olson prove we have it.