To This Day Project

Shane Koyczan is my all time favorite poet. He inspired me to write my very first poem my freshman year of high school. My very first poem i preformed in a poetry competition and got a standing ovation  and I've loved poetry ever since. I attribute a lot of my success with my poetry and writing to him and my creative writing teacher in high school, Mr. Nelson. This is why I picked this poem.

“My experiences with violence in schools still echo throughout my life but standing to face the problem has helped me in immeasurable ways. Schools and families are in desperate need of proper tools to confront this problem. This piece is a starting point.” –Shane

To this day is an anti-bullying campaign. The main video on the page is an animated video of his original poem to this day.

The video begins with his own personal bulling story and how it effected him. Then proceeds to tell a few other stories of people who have suffered bulling and how it has impacted their whole entire life. Shane puts it into such better words than i do but he basically says ignore what people have called you because you are so much better than what bullies think of you. 

One of my favorite lines from the poem is: "If you can't see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror. Look a little closer. Stare a little longer. Because there's something inside you that made you keep trying despite everyone who told you to quit. You built a cast around your broken heart and signed it yourself. You signed it they we're wrong."

This poem is life changing please take a moment to go watch the short video.

http://www.shanekoyczan.com/to-this-day-project/

TED Talk // Taylor Mali: What Teachers Make

What teachers make is a poem by Taylor Mali, its a sort of dialogue type poem about the impact that teachers make. He describes that having a job as a teacher is not about how much money you make. Being a teacher is so much more than that. Being a teacher is honorable and there is no better job.

Taylor Mali was one of the poets that really stood out to me when I first started writing. This specific poem actually made me want to go into teaching. He words were so moving. The last line of this poem especially hit me hard, he says "Teachers make a god damn difference, now what about you?"
That line resonated with me so hard because I want to make a difference in other people's lives, especially children. I think the teacher you have going up shape how you think about education for the rest of your life. I want to be that positive influence.


https://www.ted.com/talks/taylor_mali_what_teachers_make

TED Talk // Roxane Gay: Confessions of a Bad Feminist

Roxane Gay starts her TED talk by calling herself a bed feminist. As she further explains in the TED Talk is that she feels as if she cannot live up to the expectations of the feminist movement. She explains that we put these famous women, these famous feminists up on pedestals and once they do something that doesn't reflect perfect feminism their feminism is questioned. That's why she refers to herself as a bad feminist because she doesn't follow the 'outline of feminism'. Roxane says "But back then, I worried about the tone people used when suggesting I might be a feminist. The feminist label was an accusation, it was an "F" word, and not a nice one. I was labeled a woman who doesn't play by the rules, who expects too much, who thinks far too highly of myself, by daring to believe I'm equal — (Coughs) — superior to a man. You don't want to be that rebel woman, until you realize that you very much are that woman, and cannot imagine being anyone else." 
What is going advance the feminist movement is getting people to say they are that rebel woman and they will stand up for women. 
Roxane brings up the point that people with power need to step up they are influential and teach people that we need to be better and say no we won't stand for this mistreatment. The wonderful this is she also includes trans women and people who identify as women into her definition of feminism.
 I loved this TED talk because it is eye opening that the only reason that women have these barriers because we are unwilling to stand up to the normal things that we usually let slide. For example she says rap music, the lyrics ate usually demeaning to women yet we listen to it. If we didn't and said that's not okay there would be no demand for it.

I loved her perspective on how we can change feminism for the better. 

https://www.ted.com/talks/roxane_gay_confessions_of_a_bad_feminist/transcript?language=en

Pepsi Commercial

Recently Pepsi has come out with a very controversial commercial, featuring Kendall Jenner. The commercial, linked below shows a large group young protesters marching through the streets. One of the more prominent characters within the commercial gives a look to Kendall, signaling her to come rally with the other protesters. Kendall is in the middle of a photo shoot and proceeds to rip off her wig and hand it to a woman of color.She then wipes off her lipstick and storms of confidently into the crowd of people. Once she joins the crowd she grabs a Pepsi and walks up to a line of police men and hands one the Pepsi, once he accepts the Pepsi the crowd begins to cheer and clap and congratulate Kendall. The commercial ends in the whole group walking towards the camera with the words "Live Boldly" in all caps across the screen.

This commercial sparked an uproar within the community and rightfully so. While Pepsi may have being trying to convey unity and peace they did not do it in the correct manner. The commercial down plays the seriousness of the Black Lives Matter Movement and invalidates all they have been through. You cannot simply stop police brutality but having a WHITE woman give one officer a Pepsi. Huge mistake on the Pepsi company and Kendall Jenner.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA5Yq1DLSmQ&t=0s
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/business/kendall-jenner-pepsi-ad.html?_r=0

Alpha Chi Omega Stance On Transgender Women

I am a part of the Greek community here at Utah State University, I am an Alpha Chi Omega. I also happen to be a part of the LGBTQ community.

The president of my sorority, Angela Costley Harris has announced to the Greek community that transgender women will be welcome to join Alpha Chi Omega. She says "Alpha Chi must be inclusive of all who live and identify as women regardless of their gender assigned at birth"

As a member of the LGBTQ community and an advocate for ALL women's rights i think that this was a fantastic step in the right direction. Greek life is all about if including people for who they are and personally I think this will help with recruitment and give a loving community to someone in the LGBTQ community that doesn't have the support system that most of us have. It will also bring diversity into the individual chapters as well as the Alpha Chi Omega Organization as a whole.

There has been scrutiny from some of the alumni, but regardless I personally think this was a great step in bettering  Alpha Chi Omega and Greek Life.

http://www.komu.com/news/alpha-chi-omega-to-admit-transgender-women

TED Talk // Harry Baker: A Love Poem For Prime Numbers (59)

Harry Baker is more than just a poet, he's a mathematician and a student. He combined his love for math and his love for poetry and love for love all into one thing. 

A Love Poem For Prime numbers is a poem about love of course, but so much more than that. The start of the poem Harry(59) says he is in love with a girl that's so perfect(60), but she'll never love him back because he's nothing close to her type. After some time of being sad. He finally met is other half(61). He compares them both to being prime numbers and says: "You’re 59, I’m 61, together we combine to become twice what 60 could ever be."

I love that line and the poem as a whole because it promotes healthy relationships and that if one relationship may not work out the exact way that you want it to there's no need to fret because eventually you'll meet your very own 61.

The poem ends with the line: "When it came to real love, they were a prime example." That's a fantastically clever line!

Then the proceeds on with the rest of his TED Talk once he finishes the poem. He goes into the history of poetry slams a bit to introduce the the fact that the was invited to the poetry world cup in France and won. That is so inspiring to me as another slam poet, I would love to one day achieve as much as Harry Baker has done.

He performs the poem that won him the poetry world cup and then one other.

I chose this TED Talk because Harry Baker inspires me and makes me think that if i try hard enough i could be performing at the poetry world cup or have a TED Talk like him.

https://www.ted.com/talks/harry_baker_a_love_poem_for_lonely_prime_numbers

TED Talk // If I Should Have A Daughter

The beginning of the video Sarah Kay performs one of my favorite poems.The poem is about what kind of mother she would be. She poetically describes that she's going to teach her daughter how to live life the fullest and that trouble won't last forever. Also that when she's down her mother will be there for her because that's how her mother was. She end the poem with the line: "And when they finally hand you heartache, when they slip war and hatred under your door and offer you handouts on street-corners of cynicism and defeat, you tell them that they really ought to meet your mother." and I absolutely love that.

Then proceeds with her Ted Talk about spoken word poetry, she says spoken word poetry is poetry that doesn't want to stay on the paper. She mentions he love for poetry began her freshman year of high school. The first time that she performed her poetry she got amazing responses from her peers and that's what kept her going with spoken word poetry. Then she started going to poetry open mics with her parents and got great support from the older poets she met.

Something that really resonates with me is during he talk she says: Spoken word poetry is accessible to anyone, that everyone has stories to tell. I love that. I am personally a slam poet or spoken word poet.


I chose this ted talk because I love this poem and I had a very similar situation to Sarah Kay and I look up to her.




https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_kay_if_i_should_have_a_daughter#t-306662