from technodyke.com, 2001
by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Alix Olson has become well known nationally and internationally as a fierce, powerful, visionary slam poet, ruminating on everything from the evils of capitalism to the joys of being a dyke. Recently featured on the cover of Ms. Magazine, Olson has now launched her website, http://www.alixolson.com, with her partner Amy Neevel, and published her poetry book Only The Starving Favor Peace, amongst many other projects. Technodyke exchanged some emails with this prolific writer and activist.
RKB: When did you start writing and performing poetry? Did performing in public come naturally to you or was it something you had to grow into?
AO: I started performing early, early in life- I first joined a local theatre company in Pennsylvania when I was eight or nine; it never stopped. i'm a Leo, man, I've always loved it. I guess the hard part was transitioning into performing my own work, learning how to be protective of myself on stage while still unveiling a lot of me.
RKB: How often do you write, and do you have specific ideas of what you're going to write about?
AO: I definitely go through phases of scribbling words on anything that has space; writing walking down the street, in the shower, anywhere I can hear myself think out loud. other times, i'm just storing articles, books, emails in my brain, and hoping that it's percolating! I hear that a regime for writing is probably important- uh, maybe someday i'll find one. yes, I do have specific ideas of what I want to write about. it's important to me that I study the world around me and figure out how my commentary might be effective, useful. My brain races triple-time so I need to focus on capturing my ideas sometimes and really directly sculpting 'em. I try to pay attention to what people need, because it's only through feeling good and okay in the world that we can feel empowered enough to battle the stuff that needs warriors.
RKB: You've traveled all around the world performing your poetry – what's been the most inspiring or memorable event for you?
AO: Way too many to mention. One might be the International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Neeve and I were flown out there for a week of performances by poets from all over the world. My little blonde bobbing head was certainly an anomaly amongst many white beards- so I felt like I was definitely a part of an international poetic paradigm shift. Spoken word was being recognized as poetry. We had a special slam poetry performance for an entire Rotterdam local high school and they were so supportive.
RKB: I'm interested in the poetry slam seminars you teach for women in prison. How did you get involved with that and what is the program like?
AO: The teaching I do is primarily through a program that Feed the Fire runs called 'Youth Aloud'. My FTF pardner in crime, Amy Neevel (Neeve) got a hefty 'lil grant to support the connection between spoken word artists and underserved youth. We send artist/instructors into Hetrick-Martin (New York City's LGBT high school) and Riker's Island (Rosewood womyn's prison H.S. and Island Academy men's prison H.S.). Working with the students is invigorating and frustrating. The three particular schools we work within are so low on resources, but fortunately have some of the most dedicated, enthusiastic teachers. We're working on getting a group of the Hetrick-Martin kids to the national youth poetry slam. I wish we could bring the students from the prison; the National Slam, a gathering of talented and expressive kids from all over the country, would be much more rehabilitating than a bunch of gray cement cell blocks. More than anything, you see how prison is an industry, how the white, corporate mentality of a plantation system has simply transformed its shape.
RKB: There seem to be a lot of queer men and women in the slam poetry scene – have you found it welcoming to you as a dyke, or did you have to carve that welcoming space out for yourself?
AO: It's been an incredibly comfortable arena for me, from the very beginning. Spoken word artists like Lisa King and Regie Cabico began carving out the queer spaces years before I came along, so I entered the scene with herstorical support. But, the beauty of the spoken word scene is that there are so many kinds of people involved (more than any art form I can think of, actually) that there's not too much room for an identity-based top-down hierarchy of oppression. I really believe slam poetry is a truly equalizing genre. Of course, sexism and hetero-sexism affect our economic stability as performers. Queer womyn performers seem more likely to do three times the benefits, and are dependent upon underfunded communities (like womyn's/queer centers and theatres) for funding. We are less likely to be represented by agencies, who may be worried about our lack of "mass appeal", and so we end up working pretty hard. But, lucky for us, we've got a wealth of emotional, political, and artistic community support.
RKB: Can you tell me more about Feed the Fire – how does it work and how did you come up with the idea for it?
AO: My partner and I began Feed the Fire Productions when I decided to make a preliminary tape of my work. We had a bunch of friends who were running "One Angry Woman Productions" in Manhattan and, together, we crowded into my 'lil apartment and put together a recording. "Feed the Fire" came from a line of one of my first spoken word pieces. "and they yell, feed your husband stop feedin' the fire and we just cackle, we're a fuckin' witches' choir and we sing sharpen your knives, sharpen your daughters, steam up your mirrors, bake up some dreams, cook up some riots, fry up some screams"-- a piece that is a homage and connection to 1970's feminist radicalism and the 'coffee klatches'-- where womyn really came together to talk about their lives. It's also, hopefully, an antidote to the conservative-laced proposition that feminists, and undersupported groups in general, should really "quiet down", "calm down", "just chill, dude", "relax".
FTF Productions transitioned into doing my booking, contacting womyn's/queer groups and communities and theatres all over the country. Mostly, it's been myself and Neeve, though we now have a web designer and web updater and tons of folks that help out now and then and we are hiring two interns this summer! Yippeee!! (Actually, we're still accepting applications if you wanna look into it: www.alixolson.com ) Then, Neeve decided to develop the educational aspect of FTF, since we both have backgrounds as teachers and are really dedicated to the powerfully healing and "inciteful" effects of writing and performance; that's where "Youth Aloud" came in. We also now have four more artists on our roster: Samantha Farinella of One Angry Woman Productions (a talented film-maker and lecturer) spoken word artist Reggie Cabico, and Drag Kings Pat Riarch and Ray Cruiter. We're hoping to have Drag King Dred. None of it is exclusive, just a collaboration of independent artists helping to promote each other in the face of MTV domination of the universe.
RKB: Your poems are very fiery and really move your audience to not just listen but to get involved with the words you're speaking, to take them in and react to them and think about them. What kinds of emotions are you trying to elicit from your audiences with your poetry?
AO: The most I hope for is that they care about what I'm talking about. Apathy is hard to battle. And that they know how much I care about them, as listeners, as activists, that a mutual respect is created in the venue. If I feel that developing, I think I'm doing my job.
RKB: What advice would you give to budding poets who are just starting out?
AO: Oh, advice is such a crazy thing. But, I'm certainly still always in constant persuance of it! I think the most important thing for me has been reading about where we've come from as a community, as a bunch of communities. It's been spiritually stirring to realize that I fit into a lineage of artists and activists. That I'm not alone and never have been. As Audre lorde said (and i'm daring to paraphrase): there are no new ideas in the world. but there ARE new ways of saying 'em. That's comforting to me. Also, something i've learned is that censoring yourself is never particularly helpful. That your heart is gonna spew no matter what and the more you keep locked up, the more crazy you'll be in the bad sense of the word. good crazy's what we're going for here, y'know.
RKB: What are you working on now?
AO: Right now, I'm invested in finishing up my CD, "Built Like That" and finding a distributor for it so we can get it into indie bookstores and music stores around the country. Folks have been super helpful with that process so far and I am so grateful for having such a loyal, active, information-savvy, and intelligent audience to help me out. we're also working, with an agency called SpeakOut, on booking my spring/summer tour. It's sort of a dream of mine to perform at Michigan Womyn's Festival- And, if you want to support our application, you can write 'em at their summer address: WWTMC/ PO Box 7430/ Berkeley, CA 94707 or call: 510-652-5441. Hey, finally, thanks so much for doing what y'all are doing. It's only by documenting, commenting upon, interviewing culture that culture is created. So, thanks for being committed creators. And keep feedin' the fire.
ABOUT RACHEL
Rachel Kramer Bussel is a freelance writer in New York. She writes the Lusty Lady column, is Reviews Editor at Venus or Vixen and is an Editorial Assistant at On Our Backs. Her website is http://raquelita8.tripod.com