Sabrina Benaim is one of many talented poets to have captured the attention of the viewers of Button Poetry. Button Poetry is a campaign committed to developing effective systems of production, distribution, promotion, and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry. They showcase various views around the community and the various struggles that are often faced in society. Sabrina Benaim is a writer, performance artist, and teaching artist. She was a member of the Canadian championship-winning 2014 Toronto Poetry Slam team, and in 2015, she represented Toronto at the Women Of The World Poetry Slam.
In, "Explaining My Depression To My Mother," Sabrina performs the raw and painful experience of explaining her depression. As I watched her pour her heart into this microphone, I couldn't help but shed a tear of understanding and admiration. To have endured writing this poem, and to have had the courage to stand in front of judgmental eyes, this woman is one we can all look up to. Her performance is no performance. Her words are genuine and her emotions hold no facade. She shakes as she describes the presence of anxiety and insomnia in her life and her fervent analogies explain the literal and figurative battles of her depression.
(Via Wordpress)
Now it is easy to see her pain, it may not be as easy to understand it. While most who viewed this poem offered kind and sincere comments, others decided to note the imperfections of Sabrina's poem. However, their ignorance masks the fact that depression is imperfection. It is pain... "It is a shapeshifter. One day it is as small as a firefly in the palm of a bear, the next, it's the bear."
(Via GodTube)
Instigators commented on her screaming and stuttering. Honestly, would this poem hold any power without it? The emotions are screaming inside of her, she has no escape from it, why should you? In watching this video, you are asking to be a part of her pain for a mere three minutes and four seconds, the least you can do is offer her understanding. Others defend the side of her mother, but what they don't understand, is that there are no sides. There are no sides other than the limited space behind the bars of depression and those who stand free and confused by those trapped inside. This poem is Sabrina's account, there is no room for our interpretation.Most viewers commented their own experiences with depression and how this poem put their emotions into words they could never seem to find. Some even asked from a mother's perspective how they should help their own daughter struggling with depression. The community caused by this poem is met with much love and support.
In conclusion, I ask you to view this poem with an open mind, and to take in the struggle of someone in a form of pain that they themselves cannot understand.
