SaraEve Daly steps up to the mike, takes a deep breath and shakes out her fears. It?s the regional competition at Jersey City Slam and how she fares all depends on how much of her heart she?s willing to share.
The Union City poet announces the title of her piece, ?Conversations Overheard During Easter Supper,? a piece about her sister overcoming her PCP-addiction, her mother ?shuffling the food around the plate? as a recovering anorexic and her brother dealing with his own love affair with three different substances. Later alternative titles for the piece will include ?My Family? and ?Confessions of an Over Eater.?
We all take turns reminding my younger sister that she is not getting any younger and she needs to start losing weight now ? the words flying out of my mouth faster than I know what to do with them, but I will return home that night with my eating disorder firmly replanted, says Daly, who moves on to the subject of her brother.
She says, You need to understand that sometimes his waistline alone makes me consider doing heroin.
Daly didn?t always have the bravery to say those sort of things out loud, much less in front of the crowd that congregates every Friday at Grassroots Community Space on Coles Street for JC Slam, Hudson County?s current spoken word mecca.
For years, the 31-year-old kept her thoughts on paper ? she was a ?page poet,? as they call them ? until one day in 2010 when her fellow Emerson High School graduate, slam master Ben Figueroa, asked her to come and share her work during the open mic preceding each competition round in the then-newly founded slam.
?For the first year, I wasn?t really competing but I was slowly picking up duties around the slam and rooting myself in it,? says Daly. She made friends, grew as a poet and learned more about herself as a person. One major turning point for her was the 2011 Women of the World Poetry Slam (WOWPS) in Columbus, Ohio, when she went to support JC Slam?s representative, Kathy Stout.
?It literally changed me ? I came back with an appreciation not only for myself and my art, but just an incredible appreciation for my body. I came back so much more rooted in where I had come from.
?I was so much more proud of myself seeing those 80 women?Not one woman there was embarrassed of her story, of her body or what happened to her,? she says. ?From then on, I didn?t do the open mic anymore. I thought, ?If I?m going to be a slam poet, I might as well do it with everything I have.??
Now, Daly will represent JC Slam at the upcoming WOWPS in Minneapolis this March. For the past few weeks, she?s been raising money through an IndieGoGo online campaign that will help pay for registration fees as well as travel and lodging for her, her husband Louis Fermin and Figueroa, who will coach her. As of publication, Daly has until Friday, Feb. 15 to raise about $1,000 more to meet her $1,500 goal. She will also have an open bar fundraiser and a sendoff party where she will read some of her work, but more on that later.
She?s also been sifting through pages and pages of her work. At WOWPS, she will need to come prepared with four poems ? one shorter than one minute, another shorter than two, and so forth. Right now, she?s choosing between 20 of her best.
?My poetry falls through three spectrums ? ableism, which is related to my epilepsy; feminism, which includes my body issues and eating disorders; and my mother issues. Because we all have that problem that comes from deep, dark issues somewhere, and for me, that?s my mother,? says Daly frankly.
?I?ve always struggled with food and body image. Before I was diagnosed with epilepsy, I was borderline obese ? at 225 pounds ? due to hospitalizations and medication. After my first brain surgery, I wound up coming out of the hospital at my lowest, 140 pounds. I look back at it now and realize yes, I have struggled with eating disorders. I do still have eating disorder tendencies (I?m an emotional eater), but the disorder itself isn?t a problem anymore, which is awesome.?
Her epilepsy is also now manageable, she says, with only about two seizures a week. Once, she had a seizure in the middle of JC Slam. Fortunately, her ?slam family? is seizure-trained and know how to make sure she doesn?t hurt herself or anyone else and gets through it fine. During the seizures, which last anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes, Daly is mostly conscious and talks to those around her to calm them down.
?When I had the seizure, I didn?t feel too well and thought something might happen, but I was determined to go on. I was on a chair but it started to happen and I fell off,? says Daly. ?Fortunately, at (the 2011 National Poetry Slam in Boston), someone had a seizure fell off the stage and because I saw this happen, I knew the rules about medical emergencies. I was able to say, ?I get to start my poem again!? and won the slam. I just kept plowing through. That?s what I do. I keep plowing through.?
She?s able to speak about even her biggest personal challenges and darkest secrets with some form of ease now, but that wasn?t always the case. She credits practice and support from fellow women poets like recent JC Slam featured poet Rachel McKibbens with strengthening her voice. ?I have total appreciation for anyone who gets up on a microphone. It?s one of the hardest things you can do,? she says. ?It gives me an outlet to get a lot of things through.?
On March 6, Daly will share her poems with other women poets at WOWPS and hopefully inspire others as she, too, was uplifted at the event two years ago.
?With every poet that I meet, I get an opportunity to unlock a part of me that I thought I could never talk about,? she says. ?It?s amazing and I hope it?s the same the other way, that maybe they?ll hear something and feel like, ?OK, now I can talk about this.??
Before Daly leaves, you can support her at her open bar WOWPS fundraiser on Feb. 17 at 8 pm at Sushi Tango, located at 516 Jersey Ave. The open bar is $25. There will be raffles and prizes.
She will also perform some of her poetry, including works from her chapbook ?When the Tight Rope Gave Way,? on March 2 at 8 pm at Tachair Bookshoppe, located at 260 Newark Ave. Also performing will be Maggie Danger Brown, the WOWPS representative from south Jersey?s Loser Slam and Erin Karcher, a finalist in last year?s JC Slam WOWPS qualifier. Admission is $7. There will be raffles and prizes. Daly will give 10 percent of all funds raised to the Epilepsy Foundation.
Check out a video of SaraEve performing the piece referenced above, ?Conversations Overheard During Easter Supper,? here. Support her online fundraising campaign here.
Like what you've read here? Please consider making a donation or becoming a sustaining member. As a grassroots news organization, we rely on community support -- as well as paid advertising -- to survive.
walmart best buy sears abercrombie abercrombie Aeropostale Jcpenny
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.