Divas Spoken Word Showcase 2018

Divas Spoken Word Showcase
April 20th 2018

It’s different planning for a showcase and much different seeing it in action. I wish I was brave enough to share spoken word with others on a stage. I guess, it was equal parts bravery and equal parts practice. It was my first showcase, so I did not know what to expect. I liked that because I liked being surprised. I liked not knowing what to expect even though I knew how from previous sessions. I felt like I had watched these young girls grow week to week through the construction of their pieces. I feel like an accomplishment for my last Diva’s blog. I got to the event and I loved the location, just geographically because it was across the Art Gallery of Ontario. The venue we went to also had an artsy energy to it that could allow creativity to grow. 

I loved the poems and spoken word because every piece had a piece of their life experience that spanned their religion, gender, school experiences with authority figures and even peer groups. I thought that the spoken word pieces were very current and I was impressed by the kind of sensitivity they demonstrated in world issues. I said this before, but I think it still applies. At their age, I was not aware of racism, loving myself and everything that made me…me, wholeheartedly. I merely followed the grain in that I listened to what was considered cool in my peer group and didn’t really learn to stand out and understand that I was my own person until my late teens. I admired the Diva’s Group for having that awareness of self earlier than most kids in my time did. I value writing. I see the power in words and see how words can mean something depending on how you configure them and manipulate them. Writing is its own kind of art and there are no barriers. That was what I appreciated not just about the Diva’s program. Truth wasn’t fact, but it was subjective and whatever truth was on the stage was the one I found myself enthralled with. 

I feel sad that as this is my last Diva’s blog post, I came in as a placement student and am leaving this place enriched by this particular program. I came not knowing what to expect and I’m leaving Regent Park Focus with a better understanding of the programs and what media does to give the members of a voice. The Diva’s Program has given these growing women a voice that is uniquely theirs and I, for one, hope to watch them develop when we cross paths again.

By: Erika Kahrah

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