Living & Arts

Redefining Afrolatinidad

In print | February 14, 2008

AfroLatin Week ended with a bang last Saturday at Olde Club with the Redefining Afrolatinidad Spoken Word/Hip Hop night.

The event featured spoken word artist Oveous Maximus, the Bryn Mawr feminist rap collective 3 X A Lady Crew, Nicole Marie Lopez ’10 (BMC) and Swarthmore students Eva McKend ’11 and alum Miriam Okine ’06. The event was organized by Grace Kaissal ’10 and McKend and sponsored by cultural groups SASS, SOCA and Enlace.

According to Kaissal, she and McKend were inspired to organize the performance because “we noticed that a lot of the events hosted during AfroLatin Week are centered around the Afrolatin experience outside of the United States.” Kaissal and McKend wanted to host an event that represented the Afrolatin communities in America.

“Spoken word is a form of expression that has long been the forum [through] which underrepresented communities speak their mind and say what they have to say,” Kaissal said, “With the number of Afrolatinos, African Americans and Latinos, especially young people, who use spoken word as a means of political and cultural expression, we thought this event would help shed light to that experience.”

When choosing artists to perform at Redefining Afrolatinidad, the organizers decided to feature local talent.

“We have so much hidden talent at this school and in our neighboring schools that it’s important to always tap into that and provide an opportunity for students to showcase that talent,” Kaissal said, “They were all artists from our very own communities who have a lot to say about the world we’re living in and are conscientious of their surroundings.”

The organizers decided to invite Oveous Maximus to perform “not simply because of his Afrolatino heritage and amazing spoken word talent but also because a lot of his work speaks directly to the experiences of many students in the tri-college community.”

McKend, a SASS board member, was asked by Kaissal to perform one of her spoken word pieces. McKend performed her original “Not Another Love Poem.”

McKend first began performing as a junior in high school because “there was a lot going [on] that I was seeing in the media that I didn’t like and inspired me to write.”

“I wanted to give a voice to young black girls like myself who were and are never given a fair shot, never an opportunity to be themselves or even seen as beautiful,” McKend said.

McKend called her performance on Saturday night an “out of body experience at times” and said the she “felt really moved” at the show. “I knew the seriousness of my message going in and I could tell that the audience would be receptive and engaged,” McKend said, “There was a moment where I forgot where I was and it just became about me talking about the absence of love. The message was so important…I just wanted everyone to be with me.”

While McKend was hoping for “a little more of a call and response feel” for her piece, she said that “the crowd was so engaged. They were great.”

The audience also enjoyed “Womyn Head High” from the 3 X A Lady Crew, Okine’s work and Oveous’ poem dedicated to his future ex-girlfriend, which McKend deemed “beautiful.”

For Kaissal, the best part of the night came when she was sitting on the stage “seeing everyone who came to the performance so in tuned with what all the performers were saying in their spoken word pieces and performances. I felt like so many people were really taking it all in.”

After the performance, the organizers held a panel with all the artists during which students received the opportunity to ask performers about their work. According to Kaissal, topics of discussion ranged from “the power of spoken word and poetry for underrepresented or disempowered youth” to “ways to [be] more critical of mainstream culture.”

After all their hard work, both organizers consider the event a success.

“I really just wanted a good number of people from the tri-college community to come through and really enjoy but more importantly listen to the powerful messages being conveyed by all the artists performing and on the panel,” Kaissal said.