she is so amazing.

she is so amazing.

I like what seems to be the gist, although there are portions where I cannot make out what she is saying.

I love Alix Olson. I had to watch the video several times to catch most of what she actually says, but it was worth it. She's amazing.
I especially like the part about anger seeping through spigots you never knew you had.

I will concede to Ms. Olsen that feminism as a movement must evolve to suit changing times and it's the plight of any activist to resort to agitation to rouse the populace from its metaphorical cobwebs and resulting poison of complacency. Yet, the older I become, the softer, less abrasive, less consciously aggressive do I phrase my pleas to be heard. While I once believed the purpose of art was to offend, I have now come to believe that more good can be done through subtle and less confrontational methods. In viewing this video, I smile, observing the way I was in a more riotous, self-righteous incarnation.

Don't get me wrong--anger is instructive and a part of the maturation process, but with age, I have come to understand that it repels as many people as it enlightens. Patriarchy, sexism, and the residual elements wrought by both can be a never-ending seam of anger to be mined but, speaking only for myself, there came a point in time in my own life where I recognized, with no small degree of frustration, that anger, no matter how cleverly expressed did not change the way of the world. Ms. Olson's cause is a worthy one, but understand that although one can find a never-ending series of deplorable events in which to collectively hang one's head in shame, I found it a much less taxing, far more rewarding experience to focus on the things I could change, rather than stewing in righteous indignation about the things I could not.

I'm not advocating subservience by any stretch of the mind, but what I am advancing is the old maxim that a person can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Certain men who are threatened by women in positions of power and authority will always resort to cowardly, tried-and-true methods of name-calling but I've found the best catharsis is in making a difference, rather then addressing frustration and rage, no matter how justified, or poetically rendered.

Comrade Kevin, are you suggesting that Alix Olson doesn't make a difference in what she does? Also, have you ever heard any of her other poetry?

On just the human scale she has inspired more young women (and probably young men too) than I know. I cannot begin to quantify the influence she had on me as a high schooler, a lesbian just coming out of the closet, in validating the rage I felt at the system we're caught in, in validating my burgeoning sexuality, in giving me new ways to look at my place in the world, at power, at gender, or even in her nonpolitical poems, her poems about love and loss, at relationships.

Yes, she's angry. We're all angry, or we should be. But that doesn't mean we're not doing good work or that we need to smile sweetly while we do it, or even that we don't smile when we know it will serve us and our causes better. She's a poet- it's their job to feel. And art that's only pretty and pleasing, that only showcases "appropriate" feelings, is pretty much useless.

I had forgotten that I saw here in NOLA at V to the 10th until this very moment. Thanks for posting this! She was/is sooooo awesome. I only wish I could one day sharpen my poetic skills to her level.