Alix Olson: word warrior.

AuthorDiNovella, Elizabeth

Concerned Women for America, a conservative women's group, named Alix Olson as one of the ten most dangerous women in this country.

The reasons why were clear on a hazy summer afternoon in Madison, Wisconsin, when the twenty-seven-year-old spoken word poet and lesbian feminist took the stage at Tomboy Girl Fest.

With her big mouth and mischievous grin, Olson dominated the stage. She turned her head to the side, covered the mic with her hand, and in a nasal voice mocked the tone of an in-store announcer: "Attention Shoppers! America's On Sale!" And she went on: "We've unstocked the welfare pantry to restock the Wall Street Gentry / It's economically elementary because values don't pay! Yes, American Dreams are on permanent lay-away (there was limited availability anyway)."

Olson is an electrifying performer, who seduces her audiences with wit and energy. Rocking back and forth on her heels, she spins tales of life on the road in between her loud and fiery poems. A sharpshooter with theatrical flair, Olson oozes both love and rage.

Olson's website (www.alixolson.com) features praise from historian Howard Zinn: "Mix brought me to my feet. She is an ingenious poet, a brilliant performer, a funny person, and serious thinker. She is, quite simply, extraordinary." Hip-hop artist Sarah Jones also lauds her: "Alix is a vital feminist voice and a true spoken word powerhouse. She is a clear alternative to a polluted mainstream."

Olson began writing as a child. Raised in a conservative Pennsylvania town by progressive political science professors, she guesses she began writing poetry at age ten. "It always seemed a natural way to translate the world around me," she wrote to me via e-mail, "and I think my words grew up with my political consciousness."

For her, art and politics are inseparable. "Poetry and art in general are a kick in the butt, a reminder that people can speak truth," she tells The Progressive. Olson speaks truth to several powers: governmental, corporate, and patriarchal.

She writes in her poem "Womyn Before": "I was still sucking my thumb the first time I sang 'we shall overcome.'" This poem relates how Olson joined a union picket line with her mother. "I asked her 'why are we so mad?' / And she parked her head down in the freezing rain and saw me / So serious and small with my big Mack Truck union sign / She smiled to herself, pondered the politics of fingers curled / 'This is solidarity,' she whispered to her baby girl."

She also...

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