Project OCEAN invites you to Express Yourself
Project OCEAN (On Campus Emergency Assistance Network) is collaborating with Program Council’s Poet’s Lounge and Los Angeles’ largest slam poetry venue, Da Poetry Lounge (DPL), to bring “Express Yourself Poetry Spoken Word” to CSULB on November 21, 2013 from 6pm-8pm in The Purple Room, USU 103. Students can sign up for free workshops with DPL’s teaching artist Natalie Patterson, where they will have the opportunity to learn how to write, edit, and perform poetry. Two free poetry workshops will take place on Tuesday, November 12th and 19th from 1pm-3pm in USU 105. Workshops will help students build confidence as artists and poets, and selected poets will be invited to perform at the Express Yourself Poetry Spoken Word event, alongside DPL’s featured poets.
At our outreach table, when we promote the Express Yourself event, students are often enthusiastic and say, “Wow, that’s cool!” But how do we make it more than cool? How do we make it meaningful? We realized that our rationale for hosting a spoken word event needs to be better explained. Hopefully this article will provide a better understanding of the inspiration for this event.
The history of spoken word poetry (SWP) has been traced back to ancient Greece, the Harlem Renaissance, and, more recently, the African-American Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. SWP was used as a platform to give oppressed people a voice to express sociopolitical injustices. Bob Holman, a poetry activist, hosted one of the first poetry slams in Chicago in the 1980s. Holman is recognized as one of the original slam poets at the Nuyorican Poets Café, one of the first slam poetry venues in New York. Modern day SWP strives to maintain the spirit of seeking and sharing truth and weaves blues, poetry, hip hop, and theatre together, into a rhythmic and unstructured oral performance, where slang and ordinary language is used and accepted.
Great, right? But how does this connect to Project OCEAN and mental health? Poetry and writing are two of many forms of creative expression that can be healing to both the poet/writer and the audience. Use of writing as a therapeutic tool in counseling has taken place over the past three decades. It is suggested that writing provides “psychological insight” and is healing because it gives individuals “control over the rate, depth, and intensity” of their therapy. Writing has also been shown to help people adjust to traumatic experiences and to reduce symptoms of asthma and arthritis, and it has been correlated to physiological health benefits as well. However, using writing and spoken word poetry alone to process personal crises and/or traumatic or unresolved disclosures is not recommended. Therefore, it is not recommended as a replacement for counseling or medical care.
Nevertheless, spoken word poetry is making a debut into the field of mental health. Ian Levy, an educator and hip hop artist, developed Hip Hop Spoken Word Therapy (HHSWT), which uses a combination of elements from cognitive behavioral therapy, bibliotherapy, music therapy, and person-centered therapy. Artistic writing and performance can be used to heal.
Express Yourself Poetry Spoken Word is a meeting of inspired minds (Project OCEAN, Poet’s Lounge and DPL) who strive to create a supportive campus environment by providing a space for individuals on campus to share life experiences-the good, the bad, and the strength to ride it all out. The Express Yourself event aims to fulfill the mission of CalMHSA-Prop 63, a state grant that focuses on stigma reduction and suicide prevention. We believe that by providing a platform for our campus community to use creative expression to share our stories, we can remove the stigma associated with mental health and seeking support, and create unconditional acceptance and support of one another. No shame, no hiding. Express Yourself Spoken Word promotes community, respect, and resilience.
We look forward to seeing you at Express Yourself!