February 14, 2002
February 14, 2002
By Dulely Delgado
STAFF WRITER
Alix Olson swept Oswego away with her slamming usage of similes and blatant metaphors on Feb. 7.
Olson opened up the show running up the center aisle towards the Steeper Bell Auditorium stage, describing interesting facts about each town she has visited.
"Oswego's story - having the most bars and karaoke on Thursday nights," said Olson, laughing. "That's what I'm going to pass on about Oswego."
Olson began her slam poetry career three years ago when she decided to join the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. It was after joining this group that she became a member of the National Championship Poetry Slam Team in 1998. A year later, she became the Out Write National Poetry Slam Champion. She made appearances in New York at the Harlem Apollo Theater, and HERE Performing Arts Festival.
Olson has traveled throughout the United States, performing for all types of colleges, theaters, clubs and organizations.
Olson's first poem of the evening was about how she perceives people and life.
"I believe people are see-through when you put them in the light; I believe s*** works out 'cause of circumstance," she recited.
Eleven poems would follow throughout the next hour and a half.
Olson began to tell a story, through her poetry, about visiting an Alabama frat house, then moved into how she felt about those that discriminated against gays and lesbians, specifically Mormons, and then went back to a time when she was teaching a third grade class in the Bronx.
"I decided one day to discuss gender. One student raised her hand and said gender was a list of things. I said, 'you mean agenda,'" she said, giggling.
Olson's second poem was about what she dreams of and hopes for her daughters in this life.
"This vagina will be known; she'll be male and female and in-between," she recited.
The third poem recounted the sexual escapades of a lesbian.
"If it's a d*** you're after, it's on the dresser," recited Olson, who seemed comfortable with her language but made the audience laugh nervously whenever she same the names of sex organs.
Olson dedicated her fourth poem to a female representative of an organization that publicly criticized feminists and their work. Olson dedicated this poem because of the woman had written about her in a newspaper.
"She called me a warrior!" Olson exclaimed, and yelled that "it didn't take a d*** to have balls."
"Is anyone in here in love?" Olson asked the audience.
She smiled as hesitant hands rose within the audience. In her fifth poem, Olson spoke of love.
"...wrap my breath around you..check my pulse to make sure it hasn't quit on me," she recited.
Her sixth poem was reminiscent of Wal-Mart announcements.
"Attention Gucci shoppers, America's on sale," she shouted. "A flag shit worth $50 - the one being burned is you."
Feminism was the theme for the seventh poem, and listed reason why "the vagina should be in charge."
"Vagina should not be liberator but dictator; we are calling it refusal to be named," Olson recited.
The final poem, titled, "C*** Country," got the most laughs out of the audience.
"I decided to start the c*** country," said Olson. "I declare independence from clitoris to shining clitoris."
Angelique Chambers, chair of Oswego State's Rainbow Alliance - an organization dedicated to gay and lesbian rights, was mainly responsible for Olson's appearance in Oswego.
"We her last year and we had a good response," she said. "She deals with a lot of issues in a fun and creative way, so we decided to have her back."
"I thought Alix Olson was a good mix of political satire and comedy," said Xander Terpening, a senior psychology major. "I agreed with a lot of her political stands and the issues she brought up."