"I am graffiti" by Leanne Simpson
I was browsing through the poetry in voice website, looking for a poem I could memorize for english class, when I came upon the poem "I am graffiti" by Leanne Simpson. Here it is:
It immediately struck me as something I could incorporate into this project. It was talking about the hurt aboriginals have faced, and how they refuse to be ignored, refuse to be erased. I loved the poem right away. I could hear the frustration in the author's voice.
I like the lines: "We are the singing remnants left over after the bomb went off in slow motion over a century instead of a fractionated second." It made me feel the full impact of the Indian Act. It had the same affects as a bomb but it's torture was dragged out for over a century.
I also like the line after that: "It's too much to process, so we make things instead." Aboriginals have dealt with a lot of their pain through art. That gave me the idea to look at the Indian Act though the eyes of artists.
I am starting with Leanne Simpson. I have e-mailed her asking if I can interview her. I did a little bit of research and she sounds like a really interesting person. She is a spoken word artist (a type of poetry I am very interested in), and is an aboriginal activist.
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