by Margarita Ortega y Gomez
Daily Lobo
On Monday, women of color read poetry and told stories about the impact that Christianity has had on their lives in a performance called "A Little Talk With Jesus."
Housed in the Omniroots' Outch Yonda performance space, the production showcased voices well known to the community like Colleen Gorman, Juba Clayton, Virginia Hampton and Mary Oishi. The performers rocked the mic and told the story the only way they know how - through their own eyes.
Gorman started the night off with smooth and sincere flows. Colleen Gorman is Navajo, a member of the Angry Brown Poets and former Albuquerque Slam Team member.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Gorman spoke of being sent to boarding school since kindergarten and how the experience relates to her relationship with religion. She spoke of isolation, sorrow and even abuse. Though the institution wasn't necessarily religious, the experience had lasting effects.
"Non-denominational school forces separation of self," she read calmly and angrily from her poem "Angry Brown Fry Bread."
Despite the discrimination she has experienced throughout her life, Gorman stays positive and open minded about spirituality.
"I believe that there is no one religion that can encompass what the Creator really is," she said. "Every day for me is a prayer."
Clayton, introduced as one of the true Renaissance women of Albuquerque, took a break from performing to do some storytelling for the first time in years.
Despite the fact that she had aged a bit since her performing days, Clayton carried herself gracefully to the mic and began to sing a gospel hymn. The audience joined in.
Her story began as an explanation to her grandmother of why she doesn't go to church anymore.
"It's so patriarchal," she whined, imitating a youthful voice.
As a response, she shifted to her best wise-grandmother voice launching into the story of the first man and woman and explaining that God may have given man physical strength, but the woman received all the power. The moral of the story was that God is a tool for empowerment.
"Don't let anyone, especially your man, keep you from your God," Clayton said.
Another one of Albuquerque's most talented and creative women, Hampton, took the stage, having just submitted the manuscript for her dissertation that same day. With poetry in hand, she began with a Jorge Luis Borges poem for the one non-English speaking Cuban member of the audience. Then she read her own work about her sister's wedding.
"The love, honor and obey stuff disturbs me," Hampton said.
Wrapping up the performance with still quite a bit to say Oishi, the event's host, took the stage with her own testimonial. Being primarily a performance poet, Oishi mixed it up a little with a part story, part gospel song. She spoke of the hardships of being a half- Japanese child in a very religiously oppressive environment in her hometown in Pennsylvania. In the midst of this struggle, she found her identity in gospel music that she sang in between pieces of her story.
The evening was hugely successful as an inspiration for creating interesting dialogue on women of color's struggle with Christianity, without defacing it, and still sending a strong message of empowerment.
