I was sitting in the near-empty MPR, waiting for an event called Sister Outsider Poetry. I knew very little about the event. It was recommended to me literally the day before. I didn’t really know what to expect other than these were two women who were about to read their poetry. Poetry, I have been told, was all about their otherness. My kind of poetry.
The live reading began, and even though barely anyone showed up, both these women seemed unphased. Dominique Christina and Denice Frohman said that this wasn’t a bad turn out, just a more intimate one. Then they began their first poem. It didn’t take me long to recognize their form was slam poetry. A rhythmic prose that is less metaphorical imagery and more raw thoughts and emotions. The first poem they performed together, titled “Home,” was a clear descendant from the works of Audre Lorde, such as her automythography “Zami” and "Sister Outsider," which this reading was named after. This is a fact that both poets don’t even try to hide; they literally said this poem was inspired by Lorde’s work.
As the title of the poem suggested, it was about their homes, Dominique describing Granny Fifa’s house, and other neighbors who offered an open door for free food like pie, or the local sleaze-bag boy who had no father, like so many boys in her neighborhood. Denice described the women in her neighborhood who were loud, friendly, foul mouthed when needed be, and unapologetically Latinx. They both go on talking about their first kiss, Denice with her nuanced discovery of her sexuality when she finally kissed her best friend, and Dominique, who just did it, like everyone else in her neighborhood.
The rest of their poems were individually performed. Covering themes of what it means to be a woman from familial role models and pressures. Or in Dominque’s case, dealing with the death of her friends and neighbors in a gang-rampant neighborhood while trying to find a good guy, or responding to the boy who dumped her daughter for having a period when he wanted sex in “Dear Dumb Twitter Boy.” Denice more covered the themes of her sexuality, culminating in the hilarious but poignant “Dear Straight People.”
All these poems were their individual experience. This wasn’t for the mainstream. It was unapologetic, emotional, poignant and often quite funny. This is the voice of two women who are minorities and proud of it. Women who refuse to conform because society tells them to. These are voices that need to be heard. These are the voices that are creating change and understanding for what mainstream America tries to erase and discriminate against. These are voices that refuse to pander, but rather give the full and unabashed truth of their experience.
