When the book is held up to a computer, the words appear on the screen.įor another project, an iPhone app called Abra: A Living Text, Borsuk and collaborators Kate Durbin and Ian Hatcher wrote a poem that readers can interact with. Her 2012 book “Between Page and Screen” features digital poems that must be deciphered with a webcam. I’m simply trying to dig deep below the muck, and the mire, and the bodies, and the streets-to find the seed of hope that still persists, to remind myself that my life matters, too.”īorsuk performs her work in public spaces, but she also employs technology to make her words perform themselves. “When I say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ I am not trying to take anything from you. In “Black Lives Matter,” a video poem recorded in front of Suzzallo Library, Oliver speaks to white people who feel threatened by activism: “Right now is the time when justice is just us, being just us.” “We must hold tightly to a strong, rebellious, resilient, revolutionary love that refuses to accept hate,” Oliver told the crowd, packaging politics into poetry. On Martin Luther King Day, Oliver stood at a podium on the back of a flatbed truck in downtown Seattle, speaking to thousands of marchers. Nikkita Oliver, ’15, a teacher and performer of spoken word, graduated from the UW School of Law. In a piece called “Year of the Dragon,” Osaki assumes the persona of actor and martial artist Bruce Lee (another former UW student), who confronted discrimination early in his Hollywood career: Seattle poet Troy Osaki, a 2013 Ethnic Studies grad, performs spoken word at competitions across the United States. They use poetry to investigate what they learn in departments like Ethnic Studies and Comparative History of Ideas, and to dissect and defend their identities along the way. Bierds, whose work appears regularly in The New Yorker, now teaches poetry workshops in the English department, and other faculty and alumni remain at the forefront of the Northwest poetry scene.īut many of UW’s modern poets hail from programs outside of English. They inspired students like Richard Hugo, ’48, ’52, and Linda Bierds, ’69, ’71, who then blazed their own trails as lauded wordsmiths. In the 20th century, the prolific professors of the English department-Theodore Roethke (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 1954), David Wagoner (Pushcart Prize, 1977), and renowned teaching couple Nelson and Beth Bentley-crafted verses that helped shape the Northwest voice. This new generation of UW poets descends from a prestigious history. Some take the stage for fun, while others have garnered national attention for their performances. The open mics have offered a haven for young poets over the past 15 years, especially those who perform spoken word, slam poetry and hip-hop music. The name is both an abbreviation (retrospective) and an acronym (respect, educate, teach, reflect, observe). RETRO has hosted monthly open mic nights since 2002, when students Anthony Rose, ’09, and Tony Rivisto, ’06, started the club as a place for students of color to mix creativity with activism.
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