0:00:08.497,0:00:12.789
Some young men possess disjointed psyches,

0:00:13.509,0:00:19.534
makes them destroy our discs and joints[br]with swollen fists and coveted Nikes.

0:00:19.774,0:00:22.532
I have turned the last age you ever knew

0:00:22.532,0:00:26.793
and know what it is like[br]to fear both love and being left.

0:00:26.793,0:00:30.498
Although his knuckles never kissed[br]fractures into my bones or flesh,

0:00:30.498,0:00:34.037
I have been consumed and made excuses,

0:00:34.037,0:00:38.247
thrown myself at his words[br]though they were fenced with barbed wire

0:00:38.247,0:00:41.270
and then cried about the acquired bruises.

0:00:41.270,0:00:45.018
I do not know how many times[br]I passed you in the hall.

0:00:45.018,0:00:48.260
Did you press prayers[br]like duct tape onto your brokenness?

0:00:48.260,0:00:52.020
I only ever noticed your smile,[br]now I notice your ghost,

0:00:52.020,0:00:54.519
and too many girls,[br]it could have been any one of us,

0:00:54.519,0:00:57.746
who love enough[br]to actually return Adam's rib.

0:00:57.746,0:01:00.762
Did he ever ask if you would die for him?

0:01:00.762,0:01:05.407
And did you unknowingly answer,[br]attracting fate with feverish promises?

0:01:05.407,0:01:07.024
I want answers from you.

0:01:07.024,0:01:09.424
I want to know how to carve[br]your name on the wind

0:01:09.424,0:01:11.387
because that will never die.

0:01:11.387,0:01:15.251
I want you to tell me[br]this is the last poem I will ever write

0:01:15.251,0:01:17.769
about a girl who danced[br]with the night in her palm.

0:01:18.949,0:01:21.669
I wrote that poem 10 years ago,

0:01:21.669,0:01:23.997
after learning[br]that a high school classmate

0:01:23.997,0:01:26.285
had been brutally murdered[br]by her boyfriend.

0:01:27.005,0:01:32.267
That last question, "is this the last poem[br]I will write about a girl like you?"

0:01:32.267,0:01:33.767
haunts my work.

0:01:33.767,0:01:37.778
The last 10 years, I keep writing[br]about violence against women:

0:01:37.778,0:01:41.926
physical violence, sexual violence,[br]psychological violence -

0:01:41.926,0:01:44.254
my work cannot get away from it.

0:01:44.254,0:01:49.749
I think it's partly because I know[br]that poetry can immortalize a topic.

0:01:49.749,0:01:53.227
And so often, when violence[br]against women happens,

0:01:53.227,0:01:56.507
it's a quick hashtag or a short byline,

0:01:56.507,0:01:59.279
and then the names[br]and the stories are forgotten.

0:01:59.739,0:02:06.526
And this work of art is to elevate[br]those stories, to elevate those pieces.

0:02:07.236,0:02:08.857
On the other hand,

0:02:08.857,0:02:10.808
I really, really hope

0:02:10.808,0:02:13.269
I don't have to perform[br]these poems ever again.

0:02:13.759,0:02:17.511
A part of me is really trying[br]to work toward obsolescence.

0:02:17.511,0:02:21.264
I do not want to feel[br]that this poem is useful.

0:02:21.264,0:02:23.388
I want it to be antiquated.

0:02:23.388,0:02:26.829
I want it to be a bygone era[br]where we feel like poetry is the only way

0:02:26.829,0:02:29.479
that we can talk[br]about this kind of violence.

0:02:30.099,0:02:34.009
My partner and I have been talking[br]about having children. Awesome, right?

0:02:34.009,0:02:37.750
Because you're like, "Yeah, I have[br]a partner, we're going to have children."

0:02:37.750,0:02:38.780
(Laughter)

0:02:38.780,0:02:45.245
But on the other hand, my work has started[br]contemplating what that would look like.

0:02:45.245,0:02:48.238
And now, I find myself[br]writing all these poems

0:02:48.238,0:02:51.519
as advice to my future self[br]upon being a mother.

0:02:52.479,0:02:54.469
And I find myself writing guide books

0:02:54.469,0:02:58.769
on how I'm going to have to raise[br]a daughter to deal with this world.

0:02:59.769,0:03:01.268
And it's scary.

0:03:01.958,0:03:05.261
It's scary to contemplate[br]how you will raise a kid,

0:03:05.261,0:03:07.439
particularly a girl,

0:03:08.069,0:03:12.789
in a world that oftentimes sees them[br]as something that can be easily dismissed,

0:03:13.429,0:03:17.262
or easily abandoned, or not worthwhile.

0:03:20.232,0:03:22.909
I won't raise my daughter to be nice,

0:03:23.869,0:03:27.229
to give her laugh away, to smile polite

0:03:27.229,0:03:32.777
as some men plot and plan[br]to turn her body into a weapon of war.

0:03:32.777,0:03:36.979
And if they try, she will know[br]how to wield herself.

0:03:36.979,0:03:42.028
Don't tell me it's wrong to want[br]to raise a child from this kind of fear.

0:03:42.028,0:03:46.787
I know for every finger that we loosen,[br]another knuckle grows back crooked.

0:03:46.787,0:03:50.982
Another knuckle is looking[br]to crack into my daughter's skin.

0:03:50.982,0:03:55.508
And I can't trust this world to teach[br]their sons how to treat my daughter.

0:03:55.508,0:04:00.277
So I will raise her to be[br]a sword, a spear, a shield.

0:04:00.277,0:04:04.849
To turn clasped hands into heated hatchet.[br]To hold razors between her teeth.

0:04:04.849,0:04:07.770
To cut unkind advances[br]with the sharpest eyes.

0:04:07.770,0:04:11.500
To hold all of this together[br]with leather or lace.

0:04:11.500,0:04:14.505
To be chiseled, prepared[br]for rebellions against her flesh.

0:04:14.505,0:04:17.860
My daughter will be carved[br]from hard rock, sharpened,

0:04:17.860,0:04:21.759
shrapnel, a spear -[br]her whole body ready to fling itself

0:04:21.759,0:04:27.771
and arrow the hand of the first man[br]who tries to cover her mouth.

0:04:30.021,0:04:32.778
I think poetry is amazing

0:04:33.498,0:04:36.278
because it is so easily[br]carried in the body.

0:04:37.098,0:04:39.005
We know how to deal with rhythm, right?

0:04:39.005,0:04:40.927
Most of us know how to deal with rhythm.

0:04:40.927,0:04:42.047
(Laughter)

0:04:42.987,0:04:46.986
And we know how to deal with song.[br]And we know how to deal with stories.

0:04:46.986,0:04:50.186
And poetry allows us to carry these names.

0:04:50.186,0:04:54.587
It allows us to live knowing[br]that we've all these other women with us.

0:04:54.587,0:04:55.595
Specifically women

0:04:55.595,0:04:58.597
because that's the challenge[br]I want to give you on a little bit.

0:04:58.597,0:05:03.940
And to me, poetry is[br]a type of artifact, right?

0:05:03.940,0:05:07.249
It distinctly says,[br]this is the life and times

0:05:07.249,0:05:11.518
what someone recorded based[br]of what they thought was important.

0:05:11.518,0:05:16.257
And I truly, truly hope[br]that these poems I'm writing

0:05:16.257,0:05:19.999
will one day be artifacts[br]at the bottom of a dusty box,

0:05:19.999,0:05:23.765
at the bottom of a museum,[br]no longer considered necessary.

0:05:25.235,0:05:28.778
But I know that that's not the time[br]we're in right now.

0:05:28.778,0:05:31.519
That's not where we are[br]in this current moment.

0:05:32.499,0:05:35.521
And so, I have a challenge[br]for everyone in this room.

0:05:36.521,0:05:43.499
I want you to find a woman poet;[br]I want you to memorize one of her pieces.

0:05:43.499,0:05:46.526
And on the days when things[br]feel really heavy,

0:05:47.246,0:05:50.787
when equality for women[br]seems unattainable,

0:05:51.227,0:05:54.267
when one of your male[br]co-workers says something

0:05:54.267,0:05:57.703
they don't even recognize[br]is a microaggression,

0:05:57.703,0:05:59.384
when yet another person asks you,

0:05:59.384,0:06:02.019
"When are you going[br]to get married and have kids?"

0:06:02.019,0:06:04.389
And you're like, "Bro,[br]I don't want none of that."

0:06:04.389,0:06:05.769
(Laughter)

0:06:08.499,0:06:14.517
On the days when you hear yet another[br]story about a girl who's disappeared,

0:06:15.257,0:06:17.518
a woman who's been brutalized,

0:06:18.008,0:06:20.988
when it just feels like[br]we can never escape this reality,

0:06:20.988,0:06:23.503
recite that poem to yourself.

0:06:24.253,0:06:25.761
Because at the end of the day,

0:06:25.761,0:06:30.259
all poetry, even when dealing[br]with these heavy topics,

0:06:30.259,0:06:32.352
our poems, they're hope.

0:06:32.352,0:06:34.592
The whole point is for hope, right?

0:06:34.592,0:06:38.625
Hope to be heard,[br]hope for all of us to heal,

0:06:38.625,0:06:42.285
and hope that these poems[br]will be obsolete.

0:06:42.775,0:06:44.788
That we don't need them.

0:06:44.788,0:06:47.259
I want to close with a poem[br]that's not my own,

0:06:47.259,0:06:50.767
but it's from one of my favorite poets,[br]and is one of the first poems

0:06:50.767,0:06:53.241
I ever memorized[br]by someone other than myself.

0:06:53.241,0:06:56.659
It's what I recite on my heaviest of days,

0:06:56.659,0:07:00.038
that I give to myself as a gift[br]and that I give to another woman

0:07:00.038,0:07:02.588
whenever I know[br]that she's struggling with something.

0:07:02.588,0:07:06.059
And so hopefully it will inspire you[br]to find a poet for you to memorize.

0:07:06.059,0:07:07.500
So that's your challenge.

0:07:07.500,0:07:10.237
Think about a poet,[br]find a poem, memorize it.

0:07:10.237,0:07:12.518
It doesn't take much[br]to memorize twelve lines.

0:07:12.518,0:07:14.798
And then you have it[br]for the rest of your life.

0:07:15.228,0:07:17.218
This is a poem by Lucille Clifton.

0:07:19.488,0:07:25.007
Won't you celebrate with me[br]what I have shaped into a kind of life.

0:07:25.007,0:07:31.657
I had no motto, born in Babylon,[br]both non-white and woman.

0:07:31.657,0:07:34.550
What did I seek to be except myself.

0:07:35.250,0:07:40.510
I made it up, here on this bridge[br]between stars shine and clay.

0:07:40.510,0:07:43.508
My one hand holding tight my other.

0:07:43.508,0:07:48.008
Won't you celebrate with me[br]that every day,

0:07:48.008,0:07:52.249
something has tried[br]to kill me and has failed.

0:07:53.028,0:07:54.048
Thank you.

0:07:54.048,0:07:56.260
(Applause)