Friday, February 1, 2002

Slam Poet Alix Olson feeds the fire of feminism

Alix Olson’s best friend on the road is a microcassette recorder. The staple tool of journalists, and a handy note-taking device in a pinch, Olson finds recording a lot easier than trying to scribble on the steering wheel with a pen and pad while trying to pilot a car.

"I used to be driving off the highway muttering to myself. Now I have something to mutter into," Olson says during a phone interview from New York City.

Olson’s muttering, rhyming and raving are something to hear. The young woman from Fountain Hill with the cheerful childlike voice is a spoken word poet full of feminism, fire and zeal.

The brand of spoken word poetry that Olson performs is slam poetry, which she describes as a breed of performance poetry that places a high value on artist-audience interaction. –a dynamic that she feels is diminishing in out TV-watching culture.

"As Howard Zinn says, ‘Wed don’t own the media," says Olson, " So it’s important that we use artistic spaces to speak to each other."

She will be performing at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at Cedar Crest College, Allentown, as a benefit for Cedar Crest’s upcoming V-Day celebration.

Growing up in Bethlehem, Olson attended Liberty High School where, she says, she was greatly influenced by the English department’s teachers. The first music poetry she heard in Roger Hudack’s English class was the Indigo Girls’ "Closer to Fine." In Lenny Perrett’s creative writing class, she learned to develop an actual "body of work" to give substance and continuity to her art.

" These teachers honored us, as writers and thinkers, and were as challenging as many of my college teachers, and even more attentive to us," says Olson.

She now is a partner in the independent label Feed the Fire Productions, with her friend Amy "Neeve" Neevel. On top of producing, and creating, Feed the Fire promotes education and the dissemination of their nontraditional poetry to high schools through a program called "Youth Aloud."

" We send spoken word artists into New York City high schools, and will be pairing up with the Gay Lesbian Straight Network to put together a spoken word curriculum on how to effectively use slam poetry for teaching," says Olson.

And learning is the subject and object of Olson’s art. She is take-no-prisoners feminist, tearing down the traditional patriarchal constraints and taboos of society, and turning a critical eye and sharp tongue on capitalism and greed, exposing injustice, prejudice and lies as she sees it.

"It gives people a chance to take a breath and think about what they really believe," she says of her work.

However, her poetry does not lack mirth. Her sense of humor is finely tuned. "America’s on Sale!" is a poem about the down fall of American ideals to consumerism, gluttony and greed that is performed like a Blue Light Special announcement in a K-Mart, with a bull horn and Olson’s voice stretching to fake perkiness.

The V-day performance echoes these values, and is a celebration of women’s rights. A worldwide movement attempting to stop violence against women and girls, it proclaims Valentine’s Day as a day to recognize and celebrate women.

The first V-Day was inspired by the world premiere of the theatrical piece " The Vagina Monologues" in New York City, and is now a worldwide event. This year’s V-Day will take place from Friday, Feb 8, to Sunday, Feb 10, Cedar Crest on Feb 8,9 and 10 in Cedar Crest College’s Alumnae Hall at 8p.m., and will include a performance of "The Vagina Monologues," that explore the mystery, pain, and joy of women’s experiences.

Olson attributes the success of V-Day to the commitment of the college. "I draw constant inspiration from college students; they are so full of energy, so driven to make connections between issues," says Olson.