'Visionary' poet-activist gives reading
Ryan Yuk / The Dartmouth Staff Poet and activist Staceyann Chin recited four poems intermixed with personal reflection, observation and advice at a dinner Wednesday -- accepting her plaque and her place as the eighth annual Visionary in Residence at the Center for Women and Gender. Chin, who had the opportunity to sit in with students in classes, at Sexual Assault Peer Advisor training and at informal dinner and lunch discussions, said she wished to push students to take the curricular dialogue around race, class and gender issues and the respect they afford their peers within a classroom into their social and extracurricular spectra. Chin noted a tendency for students to "play liberal" in a formal setting, but lose that respect for others when the formality is lifted. "You have to find a way inside of yourself and say, 'You know what, the way that I treat my friend is not in congruence with my politics -- the way I treat my classmate, the way I talk to the women around me, the way I speak to the help around me' -- It has to begin with you," Chin said. Chin opened last night's dinner with her poem, "Imagination," which mixed laugh-provoking one-liners with her overall political call for activism. "Imagination is the bridge between the things you know for sure and the things you need to believe when your world becomes unbearable," she began. As she continued, Chin listed manifestations of classism, racism and sexism which make the world "unbearable." "I believe in monsters lurking under the bed because it gives our children something to conquer before the world begins to conquer them," she said. Chin directed her dialogue mostly to women, who composed the majority of the audience of students, faculty and administrators.
