Friday, February 11, 2005
by Dyana Bagby
Word Warrior
Folk poet Alix Olson gives fans a peek behind the scenes in her new DVD, which documents her road trip across the nation.
ALIX OLSON, THE LESBIAN folk poet who steers her red van across the country to wield her words before live audiences urging a political revolution, has taken her message to a new medium: film.
While there’s no comparison to a live performance by Alix Olson, her new DVD should hold appeal for fans of queer art with a revolutionary twist.
“Left Lane — on the road with Folk Poet Alix Olson,” now available on DVD, is a glimpse into a year of the word warrior’s life on the road, from teaching a workshop at a Nebraska high school to performing at the 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., to hamming it up with friends at a CD release party in New York City.
Samantha Farinella, Olson’s tour manager, skillfully films and edits the DVD to capture the high energy performances of an Olson show while also giving viewers insight into how others around her — including her parents, grandmother and other poets — view Olson’s one-of-a-kind style and, well, chutzpah.
Constructed as a documentary/performance film, the DVD is entertaining as well as moving and nicely complements Olson’s two CDs of spoken word mastery, “Independence Meal” and “Built Like That.”
For instance, in the film, when two sign language interpreters at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, discuss the challenges in expressing Olson’s words with their hands, viewers enjoy an educational glimpse into the complexity of such poems as “America’s For Sale.”
When Olson’s mother confesses she felt like she failed as a parent when a little Alix wanted to try out for cheerleading, you get a peek into Olson’s radical upbringing. And when Olson is pulled over by a police officer while driving on a rural highway and then mumbles into the camera about the incident, there is no denying her anger with injustice that is always simmering just under her skin.
THE MARCH FOR Women’s Lives last April is a high point in Olson’s spoken word career and her performance of “Cunt Cuntry” before thousands of cheering women is inspiring. While the sound may not be that great in this scene, Olson’s fervent energy easily translates the message of a female revolution.
Making cameos in the DVD at the march are Holly Near, Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls and Patricia Ireland, the former director of the National Organization for Women. (Watch closely as Ireland tries to steal a kiss from her favorite folk poet.)
Of course, there are many light moments included on the DVD, including an amusing scene where Olson tries to pick out which shirt to wear before a show. Ah, vanity, even for hardcore activists.
Olson’s words are accompanied throughout the film by the music of Pamela Means, Melissa Ferrick, Ember Swift, Lyndell Montgomery, Chris Pureka, and Peter Mulvey, who are described as “a few more untethered voices to the nucleus of grassroots progressive struggle and the future of laughter, rage and optimism.”
When Olson takes the stage at The Bitter End in New York to celebrate the release of “Independence Meal,” the audience in the film — and at home — is left rooting for more. And it is in these filmed performances where the strength of this DVD lies.
Considered one of the most dangerous women in the country by the ultra-evangelical Concerned Women for America, Olson is praised by such notable progressive thinkers as Howard Zinn, who calls her “an ingenious poet and brilliant performer.”
There is no doubt, she is a force to be reckoned with and has a voice worth hearing. While there’s no comparison to a live performance, the DVD should bring fans of queer art awful close to the buzz and excitement that surrounds Olson on stage.