Speaking for First-ever Womens Studies graduates of 2012 @ CCSF!!

As of Spring 2012, City College of San Francisco has given importance to Womens Studies graduates!  I was invited as a guest speaker and was honored to recite 2 poems. 

When I first arrived, I was completely thrown off by the venue, the graduation "ceremony" was held in a small Womens Resource Center within the campus cafeteria.  Coming from a CSU such as San Francisco State University, I expected a huge auditorium or gym type of venue to be reserved.  Only when I arrived did I realize that these 3 or 4 ladies standing before me were the first ever Womens Studies graduates at City College!  The other people in the room were either students of Womens Studies classes, on their way to becoming graduates, or were staff and supporters of the Womens Resource Center.

Being a victim/survivor of child abuse, and having come from an abusive relationship it was inspiring to know that Womens Studies was given importance in a community college.  We still have a long way to go in acheiving equity and/or health equity for women, and bettering our education systems, but it is definitely a start.

 So, I feel that my poems are better performed by me than read off a computer screen, but hope you enjoy.


 First poem recited: "Self Hatred Proclamation" previously performed for an Asian American Studies class, performed at the Diasporic Vietnamese American Network's (DVAN) Poetry Festival, April 2012 and also found the SFSU's Yellow Journal 2012 (poem listed in earlier blogs below)

Second poem recited:

"Where to Find the Fire" 

Now, where else would I find the fire?
No where
but in your mouth
that which is

full of ignorance about me
in your chest huffed big
your blazing stereos
when you roll past me on the street

talkin' about how I have to crawl before I ball
and to meet you in a bathroom stall
so that I can show you why I deserve to have it all?
Is where my fire to re-educate your ignorant ass comes from

See, this society has grown too comfortable
in thinking that all I have to do is
suck someones dick to get a job
because I had to work twice as hard

to gain the respect that was automatically
given to you
and where to I find the fire, you ask?

I find it when my child is left with no father
I find it when I see fatherless girls like me grow up to be hungry for male attention
I find it when I see, my mother struggle to hold the family together
I find it when you call me weak
and you call me all of the foul things that a woman can possibly be called

I find that fire,
when you gain the audacity
to raise a hand at me because
I discovered that I was too good for you

Yes I found it
When I was tired of being told
that women are too weak to handle this
because women have been handling
the weight of the worlds responsibility
to raise a better future, for far longer
than you have been taking advantage of my strength.

Photo Credits to:

Jennifer Lau

http://www.wix.com/jenniferlau120/jenlauart