Andrea Gibson - I Do
Andrea Gibson is an award-winning poet and activist from Denver, CO. An outspoken artist for queer rights, here Gibson offers her personal, poignant response to the too-often-impersonal debate on gay marriage. As the federal trial on Proposition 8 continues, and President Obama calls for an end to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Gibson reminds us of the human consequences of legalized discrimination -- and the reason why she continues to fight.
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Resist Censorship in Tucson
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CURRENT ISSUE: FEBRUARY 2012
Inside the Occupy Movement
| We visited nearly thirty occupations in twenty states in two months.
What I got at Occupy Wall Street
I spent seven weeks in Zuccotti Park, and here is what I got.
Danny Glover
| The Progressive Interview | March 2012 issue
To Wed or Not to Wed
| March 2012 issue
Progressive Matt
The Koch Brothers Conspire to Buy the White House
The Spoken Word and Progressive Politics
Howard Zinn, the beloved people's historian and longtime Progressive columnist who died on January 27, 2010, was a brilliant storyteller. He told the stories "not of the heroes and achievements of traditional history, but of all those people who were the victims of those achievements, who suffered silently or fought back magnificently": the labor radicals, the early feminists, the anti-war soldiers. Zinn also believed in people telling their own stories in their own voices. He believed in the power of artists to reshape the larger political narrative towards social justice and solidarity.
Today, a new generation of artists and activists has emerged, using their words as weapons for radical discourse and political empowerment. Coming out of the era of Reaganomics and gentrification, in the traditions of Amiri Baraka and Lenny Bruce, a movement of spoken word artists is speaking up. They combine elements of free verse, hip-hop, stand-up comedy, and soap-box preaching, but connecting them all is a diverse, democratic art form that demands participation. Spoken word is about the call and response, re-definition and self-determination, the street corner and Capitol Hill.
In this series, we are going to present a range of spoken word artists, musicians, and storytellers, all of whom are using their voices to rewrite the American narrative -- one story, many people at a time. As Howard would say, "Let the people speak."
— Josh Healey
Spoken Word Editor for The Progressive
