By Nora Ritchie
By Nora Ritchie
Balls to the Wall
Alix Olson, a self-proclaimed queer artist-activist, brings her fiery brand of spoken word to Brattleboro this week. Known for her strong commitment to social justice issues as well as her confrontational and confident performance style, Olson has recently joined the ranks of spoken word superstardom--twice headlining HBO's Def Poetry Jam and starring in the documentary Left Lane , a chronicle of Olson's life on the road.
Getting her start in the mid-'90s in New York City, where the raw energy of performing poetry in a live and competitive fashion first began to flourish, Olson fine-tuned her ballsy performance style in the small cafes and bars of the Village, debuting in the now famous Nuyorican Café.
The exciting part of Olson's spoken word, her belief that the most powerful poetry comes from a place of simultaneous strength and vulnerability, grew from these slam poetry competitions. Olson writes about this experience in her poem "Warriors": "It's a choice to make noise, it's hard to be heard, They'll toss you a muzzle wherever you go. But baby, it's the waves that let you know the ocean's alive."
July 29, 8 p.m., $15, Hooker Dunham Theatre and Gallery, 139 Main St., Brattleboro, Vt. (802) 254-9276, http:/ /sanctuarytheatre.org. July 29, 8 p.m., $15, Hooker Dunham Theatre and Gallery, 139 Main St., Brattleboro, Vt. (802) 254-9276, http://sanctuarytheatre.org.