While in high school, Sarah founded Project VOICE, an organisation which uses spoken word poetry to improve literacy, promote empowerment, and encourage empathy and vulnerability in the classroom. Through workshops and performances, she and her colleagues instil in the students a desire to share and listen to each other’s stories, while showing them that it’s okay to be affected by emotion. “I think the only way people become willing to be vulnerable is if it’s modelled to them,” she tells me.
We need to be vulnerable with each other in order for empathy to exist and in order for growth and understanding to happen. I think the only way that people become willing to be vulnerable is if it’s modelled for them. And if somebody else either explicitly or implicitly gives them permission by showing them that vulnerability is not something to be ashamed of—but rather something that can be respected and honoured—then that’s amazing. So I’m very cognisant in the work that I do of trying to model vulnerability myself. And then I also make a real effort to hold and protect other people’s vulnerability in a classroom or mentorship setting.
What do you think it is about spoken word poetry, as compared to other art forms, that lets us tap into our vulnerabilities and really open up and share in this way?
Well, it’s certainly available in other art forms too. It’s not like it’s exclusive to poetry by any means. But the thing about spoken word poetry that I’ve always responded to is that there is immediacy built in. So there’s a person standing in front of you saying the words they have created. A lot of times when we engage in art there’s a little more distance between us and the artist, right? So if we’re looking at a painting, usually the painter’s not standing next to us while we’re looking at it. Or if you’re watching a dance, even if the dancer is the creator of the dance, because of the abstraction of dance there’s a little distance built in there too. Which is not to say that you can’t have incredibly vulnerable painting and dance that is deeply moving. But I think the advantage that spoken word poetry has is that the artist is sharing the exact same breath and space as their audience, which I think is a particularly powerful thing.
To read more of Nathan Scolaro's interview with Sarah Kay, please click here.
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