Poet Alix Olson said she mistook straight for a kind of people.

“Straight is honest, keep a straight face … straight white teeth … tell it to you straight,” Olson said.

Olson was one of four poets who addressed a close-to-capacity crowd in Hendricks Chapel Tuesday night with poems entitled “Dear Straight People.”

The poetry slam, hosted by the LGBT Resource Center at Syracuse University, was inspired by the recent film, “Dear White People,” a satire about race identity and identification, and was the keynote event for Coming Out Month. The slam event featured four queer and transgender spoken word poets: Olson, Danez Smith, Yazmin Monet Watkins and Kit Yan, who served as the emcee for the evening.

Each poet was asked to write a poem titled “Dear Straight People” in honor of the event. In addition to this poem, they were also given a 25-minute time slot to perform poems of their choosing.

Watkins, an internationally touring spoken word artist, said it was great to write a poem in solidarity with other poets and nice to consider her qualms with the straight community.

“I only have this one moment to communicate what it is that I feel and what are my frustrations. It was nice to be able to reflect on that because I don’t often, at least not all at one time,” Watkins said in an interview.

Tiffany Gray, interim director of SU’s LGBT Resource Center, introduced the event as a way to spark dialogue within and across LGBTQ communities around marginalized genders and sexualizes.

She added that the event was intended to “encourage straight and cisgender people to work in solidarity with LGBTQ people as we collectively work to make SU a safer campus and community.”

Smith was the first poet to perform and mainly touched on issues of race, religion and related current events, specifically the violent arrest that recently happened at a high school in South Carolina.

Watkins focused on issues of intersectionality and love, as well as sexual assault on college campuses.

In relation to sexual assault, Watkins said she looks forward to the day when she no longer has to perform that particular poem.

Yan started off with a disclaimer to the audience about the poems’ content including sexually explicit and strong language, among other things. While Yan’s first poem contained raw emotion, the following poems introduced a comedic atmosphere.

Yan later asked the audience if it wanted an encore performance, and asked Watkins and Smith if they wanted to perform two to three more poems.

This was done to fill the time left due to the fact that Olson, the fourth poet, was not guaranteed to make it to the event in time. Olson arrived just after Smith finished his second poem. Her poems were heavily focused on feminist issues and social media.

The finale of the show was each artist performing their “Dear Straight People” poem.

Smith expressed his problems with the straight community by saying, “Dear straight people, shh. You’re too loud about everything.”

Watkins expressed the questions she has about the straight community.

“Why are you so intent on erasing our history?” she asked. “What is it like to kiss your significant other without fear of bodily harm?”

Yan ended the series of poems with an anecdote about being on a plane.

“Dear everyone who has ever looked at this yellow-brown skin, I will not save you,” Yan said.

At the end of Yan’s performance, all the poets got on the stage and expressed their gratitude.

“So much queer love,” Watkins said. “I’m so grateful to be here … even though it’s cold.”

Published on October 28, 2015 at 12:56 am

Contact Stacy: sfern100@syr.edu | @StacyFernandezB