On May 20, 2015, Chava Gabrielle and I gathered a bunch of poets we like for an event called #YesYesYes: An Evening of Poems and Songs About Consent and Healthy Sexuality.
It was a really beautiful event, and I’m happy to say that Line Break Media was able to film almost all of it. I will be posting new videos on my YouTube page, and then updating this post as they go live. If you see anything that resonates with you, feel free to share it, and/or this whole page. I think it’s important to document this kind of work.
The videos here are from the event, but I’ve also put together a list of a dozen MORE poems about consent, healthy sexuality, and dismantling rape culture HERE (it’s the second section). Hopefully, all of these poems can be useful for any advocates, educators, or activists out there.
Chava Gabrielle: Three Poems, including “When You Piss On a Tree Outside a Dog’s Home You Are Bound to Hear Barking: An Examination of Territorialism & Asking Permission”
Kenny Ngo: “Dear Lover”
Thressa Johnson: Two poems: “Bright Light” and “This Body.” Get Thressa’s book here!
Keno Evol: “More Recent Memories”
Simone Williams: “Asking for It” and an untitled poem
Ally and Sophie perform a group piece:
Anna Binkovitz performed at the event too; rather than post the footage I have, I figured it made more sense to to just link to an existing video:
Kevin Yang also performed; again, here’s footage of one of the poems he did, even though it’s not footage from the event itself:
My poem didn’t get recorded at the event itself, but here’s different footage of the same poem, “Consent at 10,000 Feet” over at Button Poetry. Another one of my poems that is relevant here is “Action.”
We also had music from See More Perspective‘s album “Sex Tape,” which engages in a very powerful way with these concepts through hip hop; here’s a song, but go get the whole album (and the Prince tribute remix album):
SEX TAPE (Or My Response to Our Morbidly Underdeveloped Sex Education) by SEE MORE PERSPECTIVE