Learning about Silenced Histories through Spoken Word Poetry

Nov 2021
10-minute read

These are the questions we are currently asking in our project, creating sound walks to experience the disappeared histories of the carceral spaces in El Paso, Texas. Spoken word poetry allows us to investigate these questions by giving the sensation of missing something in sound experience. Learning to pay attention to sounds hidden behind other sounds trains us to pay attention to disappearances experienced in place. Writing in the community is an integral part of this project because lived memories of the people form a collective legacy.

On October 5, 2021, I attended the Poetry Lab, an advanced writing workshop in the Bilingual MFA Creative Writing program at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The class is taught by the Chair of the Department of Creative Writing, Rosa Alcalá, and featured writing prompts presented by Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP Faculty Fellow Honora Spicer concerning how the layering of levels of noise and narration directs our attention to external and internal environments.

Composition Book Pic


The warm-up exercise invited writers to engage with one of Pauline Oliveros’ Sonic Meditations. We focused on the first word that came to mind, stressing each part. We were asked to slow down, take our time speaking the term, then gradually pick up speed. We all talked at the same time when enunciating, not worrying about interrupting each other. In essence, the focal point was to listen to how certain words sounded when spoken at different speeds with seemingly unrelated words. It felt as if I was partaking in a collage of intertwined sounds.

The following prompt was to create our own sound maps by documenting external noises from the environment. Below is an excerpt from my response:

I am at the center of a square in
A place I call home. El Paso, TX.
It is all I know. It is all I have ever known.
I am surrounded by noises of passing traffic
My family, my neighbors talking on their porches
And my meowing cat outside my door.
These are the noises closer and louder to me in the
External environment
These are the noises I hold close to my heart.
But what lies further away are airplanes flying far
Overhead in the sky blue desert air. Its drones occluded
In the periphery and foreign to my ears

Poetry Sample Pic

Both writing prompts had helped me to focus on noises I may not have been aware of before in the surrounding environment. That is, the noises heard in the syllables, accents, pronunciations, and etymologies of words. A word is not simply a word—there is more to its meaning, defined by how and where it is said. The location where it is uttered plays a crucial role in forming its meaning. In other words, exercises like these help participants think about how we can make audible what is unheard. These prompts were not a way to speak for others. It was rather a way to give entry to the silent sounds. It was noticing the unnoticed.

I learned how to better value and view poetry in a different aspect through the spoken word. From a young age, I enjoyed reciting poems but with this writing lab, I was better able to appreciate the power of writing. I have realized how effective the medium can be by inviting new perspectives.

I previously saw spoken word poetry as merely a presentation. Now, I think about it as a performance that allows us to pay attention to time and space. For example, people can hear noise pollution over a great distance but the noises of their own lives cannot be heard, including those toward each other. Spoken word poetry allows us to perceive such imbalances.

On September 25, 2021, I attended a Tumblewords Project workshop presented by writer and performer Celia Aguilar relating to what a community looks like. The Tumblewords Project is in its twenty-sixth year of weekly community writing workshops in El Paso, hosted by Donna Snyder. This was the first writing workshop I had ever attended. I was initially intimidated by the older writers. However, I soon learned the environment was welcoming to new participants. Everyone was encouraging and gave each other positive feedback after we each read, through making motions on camera or comments in the chat. I thought it was helpful that instructions were given, and both prompts were presented with overviews of what was going to happen.

The first prompt invited participants to write about a time we gave or received community efforts. Below is an excerpt from my poem:

I give without expecting anything in return
When it comes to my relatives, family, and friends
They are the ones I can always return to
When times don’t go as planned.
They keep the home’s doors open to me
They give me a place to stay
But I know not to take advantage of this
To continue giving and appreciating all they do for me.
Because gratitude is the most important gift.
Because gratitude is the best to show to your community.

I am involved in facilitating two upcoming Tumblewords Project workshops on November 20 and December 4, 2021. I will be presenting three prompts alongside a team of six UTEP students who are pursuing a Community-Engaged Scholarship project within Professor Naomi Fertman’s Women and Gender Studies class. Each prompt will allow for ten minutes of writing and a period where everyone will have the opportunity to read their pieces.

To prepare to create writing prompts for these events, we will walk two routes developed by our project so far, one in downtown El Paso and one in east El Paso near the airport. As I walk each route, I will follow walking directions and speak into an audio recording device. I will document the sounds of the landscape as well as my improvised response to signs and my surroundings. The goal of these sound walks is to continuously record without judgment of my narration.

Walking is not just an improvisation but a performance, an art form. When we walk, we can consider what it means to gaze back at what gazes. We can sound back to what sounds.

We can think about how carceral spaces can be different, beginning with people imagining different futures. We can take something theoretical, such as the carceral state, and make it tangible through our senses. Through writing in community, we record these sensations. This plays a role in generating a collective history.

Written by Tatiana Rodriguez, Undergraduate Research Fellow
El Paso Community College, The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP

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