To honor International Women’s Day
Lyricality Leadership Team Member Cassidy Swanson recommends “Pocket-Sized Feminism” by spoken word artist and slam poet, Blythe Baird, in honor of International Women’s Day today.
Blythe Baird is a spoken word artist who has quickly become a well-known name in the spoken word and slam poetry world. Her book, If My Body Could Speak, is published through Button Poetry based in Minneapolis, MN. Baird’s poetry focuses on tough subjects, from sexual assault to mental illness, and “Pocket-Sized Feminism,” featured here, is no different.
Her work is all at once comforting—you don’t feel quite so alone when you hear her speak—yet jarring. Her words are unfiltered and potent. In a fractured world in need of healing, her brand of feminism acts as an inspiration to women fighting for a voice and for a place at the table.
“Pocket-Sized Feminism” is full of lyrical lines spat out so fast it takes a second to process, but by then Baird has let out another string of words that leave you breathless. Baird seamlessly addresses the struggle between embracing feminism and staying silent and complicit for fear of retaliation. “I’m ashamed of keeping my feminism in my pocket until it is convenient not to,” she says.
Perhaps the most thought-provoking line of the poem comes when she asks the question, “Is silence not an act of violence too?”
Cassidy Swanson
