--
So I wrote this poem in June Jordon's Poetry for the People in Spring 2009. I dunno why i never read it to you all....but I finally read it last night at Alumnae Ritual (which was amaaazing and beautiful <3). And mary requested i post the poem. So here it iz! dedicated to the c/o 2010
Title: Greek
these mass produced
overpriced
sweatshop
royal purple
silver lined
greek letters
on black sweatshirt
read
phi
nu
Xi
packaging
stamping
labeling
ME
sorority girl
these four inch block letters
across my chest
dress me
in drunken frat houses
cute pink tops
and short clubbing outfits
before
I even
walk into a room
my jet black hair paints me asian
as my english vernacular releases my american.
my yellow skin
highlights hyphenated identity
a second generation
asian american
model minority
I do math as good as ancestors
and earn straight As
that allow me to pave ways to med school
I silence my voice behind passive hesitations
I speak vietnamese as my native tongue
But I wear greek on my body
this sweatshirt
represses
my
Identity
into
manufactured cottons
of
asian american sorority stereotype
every morning before I get dressed
i hesitate to dress in these purple letters
that perpetuate preconceived
presumptions of
who I am
under
my sweater
but now, I walk into classrooms
daring folks to judge me
i wear my sweater to rallies and
pump fists that speak to justice
to oscar grant
to israel and palestine
and human genocide
as they ask me about phi nu xi
I say:
we rant on blogs about issues
to practice freedoms of speech
encourage momentous movements that
that liberate our minds
revitalize revolutions not to make solutions
but to BE a solution
we attend overpopulated
underresourced classrooms
and uplift minds that otherwise
cannot find
anyone else
who can tell them
yes
you can.
my sisters and I
educate each other
a self-taught curriculum
that teachers in classrooms
cannot give us
empowered as womyn
we define multiculturalism
not only by different skin
eyes
hair
or language
we define multiculturalism
as ONE same passionate blood line
wearing the same sweater
These purple letters do not read
Phi nu xi.
It reads ONE.
