Spoken Word Poetry and Social Justice Education

EDUC: Let’s jump right into things. What is spoken word poetry?

Lyrical Faith (LF): I think when we learn poetry in school, we're used to seeing Shakespeare, Robert Frost, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe. So that is what I learned from elementary school probably up until about the fifth grade. Then in sixth grade, I had an amazing teacher who introduced me to the art of spoken word poetry. Spoken word is a performance. It is something that, yes, of course, starts with the writing. But the writing is meant to somehow be transformed to this on-stage experience. The energy that the crowd gives the spoken word artist is the energy that they put back into the crowd. It's definitely something that's meant to be interactive.

EDUC: When you perform, your stage name is “Lyrical Faith.” What does this name signify to you?

LF: Lyrical Faith came about because I wanted to lean more into this artistic identity that I was molding as an undergrad at Syracuse University. My name, Imani, is a Swahili word for faith. So, I always had a connection to the word. If I just believed that I was good enough and that my work and my words were valuable, and deserved to be out into the world, then I could grow into this artist and voice that I'm longing to be. 

Being a young girl in the Bronx, the “lyrical” part came about because I was just always very into music and into hip hop. I was always into lyrics and the style and the rhythm and the flow. I automatically associated that with my artistic identity. And so Lyrical Faith was born. 

EDUC: Writing often happens in private. We’ve all encountered this narrative of the artist as a solitary figure. But, spoken word is intended to be performed with others. What is it like to take the stage for the first time?

LF:  It's so personal. It's such a vulnerable act to be able to get on stage and share your personal thoughts and words. But what I've learned in performing and writing for over ten years is we do not live in this society all by ourselves. We all do have this human connection, this shared connection. When you write these words and you’re in your room alone, creating what writers create, you never know how this is going to impact someone. I can't even count how many times I've done a poem about a deeply personal experience for me or my family and someone in the crowd has come up to me and said, “oh my God, you've touched me more than you know.” But that, to me, that one person in the crowd that hears and sees themselves in my work, is what makes it all worth it.

EDUC: Can you share a little insight into the different ways you blend your passion for spoken word with your passion for education? Your resume includes poetry workshops on a range of topics, from symbolism and allegory to figurative language.

LF: Everything that I do has education at its core. To make my choice to pursue my doctorate here at UMass, it was very intentional in wanting to continue to interrogate those hard questions and unearth those difficult topics. With my research here, what I'm trying to do is [ask], “how can I create curriculums that can support educators in putting the arts in their classrooms with social justice values implemented in them?” I've had the opportunity since being here at UMass to make amazing connections with the community, to facilitate poetry workshops in a bunch of different schools like Holyoke High School, Pioneer Valley Performing Arts School, Frontier Regional High School, Amherst Regional High School, and other programs and places and spaces in this area.

I feel like the arts is a way in. It's an access point for a lot of youth. It allows for a third space to exist in the classroom where they're able to bring their own thoughts and experiences and

their personal lives into the classroom. It actually means something when they're able to write poems and engage with poetry in a way that allows them to have a voice. 

Another avenue is when I work with educators, I ask them “what do your students need?” “How does this fit into your larger curriculum?” And then I’ll create the workshop to the lesson that we talk about.

EDUC: You’re part of the Black Healing, Joy, and Justice Collective within the Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research. Can you share some insight into how BHJJ engages the UMass Amherst community using art?

LF: It adds everything to my experience here at the college. We focus on how to address, enhance, and  promote Black life on campus. And we've been able to do that in some really dynamic ways this past year. [At an event in October 2021] students came together and they created amazing pieces of art. They talked about what healing and Black joy looked like and that was so powerful. It was a visualization. It was a manifestation of what Black joy was and what Afrofuturism is. So many different parts of that came together. Being Black is not all about trauma and oppression. There are other whole aspects of Black identity that are meaningful.  We have other things to say other than protest. It's just that we are too busy protesting to be able to say them. And so when you have art and when you have other means of being able to channel these emotions and channel this expression in a creative manner…you have the ability to create your narrative.

EDUC: What’s next for Lyrical Faith?

LF: I believe that as I am walking and talking and breathing, there is living history that is happening. And so I need to be able to respond and react to it. I need to be able to write the poems, to talk about it. I need to be able to communicate with the community members and the teachers that will allow for me to be able to share this work with students. [I need to] get students’ thoughts on what it is that they want to talk about, what it is that they care about, and what it is that they're protesting about.