Farjahan Shawona, a graduate student at the University of Idaho, has participated in the annual F-Word Live Poetry Slam for the past two years and is planning to submit a piece for this upcoming year.
Shawona said she keeps coming back to participate because she loves the idea of women and girls sharing their life with each other.
“I suffered for being a woman, from getting married, to getting divorced, to the child custody case I feel strong, I feel stronger, like I’m not the only person who has gone through a lot in life,” Shawona said.
What makes her poetry stand out from the other participants’ is she writes her poetry in Bangla, the native language of her home country, Bangladesh.
“It is an education about U.S. women life, we have the same struggle whether in Bangladesh or USA,” Shawona said.
She said she then translates them into English so everyone can understand what she wrote.
This year, the spoken word poetry slam is in its second year. It will be a fundraiser for Alternatives to Violence on the Palouse. Tickets are available at $5 for students and $10 for non-students.
The poetry slam event’s history spans to 2006, when the Feminist Led Activist Movement to Empower, (FLAME) held the first one, said Bekah MillerMacPhee, project coordinator for the Women’s Center.
The requirements for the pieces is they not express hate towards any group and take 4 minutes or less.
“People can do pieces about what feminism means to them, people have done pieces on interpersonal violence, on white supremacy, on racism, all kind of issues around gender, gender discrimination, gender identity, it really is pretty open,” MillerMacPhee said.
MillerMacPhee said that submissions are accepted online until 5 p.m. Oct. 19.
Those selected will be announced a week later, on Oct. 26.
Event proceeds will go to Alternatives to Violence on the Palouse. Tickets are available at $5 for students and $10 for non-students.
MillerMacPhee said the event will be run by Denessy Rodriguez and Nicole Skinner instead of MillerMacPhee and Traci Craig, a professor at UI.
The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2 in the Bruce M. Pittman Center International Ballroom.
Kali Nelson can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kalinelson6