Our Independent

In this new column I want to issue a call for response, a call to action, if you will. I want to invite you on a journey that will take us to a new and exciting, but sometimes desolate place. Tis place I speak of is not far away, in fact it is as close to you as your next breath. It indeed is where you will draw your next breath from — your interior. In this column I want to explore what makes you you, what makes us us, and the impact of one on the other.

I want to talk about the place within us that makes us the same on the inside, where there is no issue of race, class or political affiliation, while also examining how those cultural differences flavor our life if we allow them into our community. I think that it is about time that we become brave enough to explore and conquer new territories, not in distant lands and on distant shores, but in province of our inner beings.

So I figured, why not have a dialogue with an interior warrior spoken work artist/poet Alix Olson? She has taken a break to conduct this truly spur of the moment interview with me.

We are off to a laughing start over the debate, which had aired the previous evening. Then the tenor of our conversation shifts when we begin to discuss the role of an artist in society. Olson is committed and clear, stating her belief is that Artists have an obligation to promote an awareness of social justice, an awareness of other people's perspective, to explore our interconnectedness, and most importantly to take a risk. When I ask her what her favorite part of being a full-time artist is, she simply states, "Waking up."

That's what she's been doing for her audiences ever since she relocated to New York City after graduating from Wesleyan University. On the advice of one of her professors, poet Kate Rushen, Olson first set up house at the Nuyorican Poets Café. She says that being the only womyn of European decent working with people of color informed her politics and she was able to help some of the other artists see the intersection of oppressions in homophobia and racism. And what does Olson think artists should be saying given the current political climate in this election year? "I'm not a John Kerry Fan, but we have to get Bush our and then start holding politicians like Kerry accountable," Olson says. "I like to say down with Bush left with Kerry." She says that she feels more voter education is needed. "I don't understand why a person can't register and vote the same day. I just don't get it."

In discussing the unique platform that artists have to purge their pain, Olson tells me that she thinks it's a valuable tool because the artist gets to speak about their pain and remind themselves that they made it through it, and get support from others who are saviors as well.

We then come full circle back to our humor from whence we began our conversation and I ask what makes her laugh. George W. Bush is her immediate response, but then she confesses that she can no longer find humor in the tragedy of his presidency. She then substitutes Ellen Degeneres, clever, witty humor and her friends.

Olson spends 200 days a year on the road and says her friends are what she misses the most. Indeed, her friends seem to be among her favorite things, and she is one of ours.

Catch Alix Olson in concert Friday, Oct. 22, 8pm, at ArtServe, 1450 E. Sunrise Blvd, Fort Lauderdale. Tickets are $10.

Words and Swords with Alix Olson