Raise The Bar

Its a pretty reliable rule of thumb that the more marginalized a person's background, the more exceptional their talent if they manage to break through the barriers. I had another demonstration of this rule today at a performance poetry event. There were four poets and the first and last two didn't catch my fancy. But, the black transgender woman and the woman in a hijab blew me away. There were many memorable lines, but the one that blew me away was "I am the great in great Britain, and that terrifies you." Intensely intelligent, fearless, visceral. The evening filled me with hope ahead of election day tomorrow. As fascism rises, so does resistance to it. The resistance not only fights fascism but other forms of oppression too. Those leading the resistance often come from the most oppressed groups. People who didn't have a voice, find their voice and demand to be heard. As Pablo Neruda said, 'you can cut the flowers, but you can't stop spring".