Alora Young

Art, and spoken word poetry in particular, can connect those living today to those who came before us. Through its rhyme and rhythm, it can be an imaginative tool to resurrect those lost to the passage of time, serving as both a memorial and mourner’s Kaddish. Before Alora Young started researching her foremothers, she did not know many of their names, much less the stories of their lives. While writing Walking Gentry Home, she discovered a forgotten family history through the power of poetry and speaking their names out loud. This is not a new phenomenon: many cultures have an oral tradition that keeps crucial familial and cultural histories intact. Young taps into these traditions, citing both the personal and historical, confronting generational trauma, speaking to the benefits of grieving through art, and demonstrating how we can adapt an age-old tradition to the modern era.

Spoken word poetry is currently experiencing a cultural renaissance and can be found everywhere from hip-hop, in the rhymes of Kendrick Lamar, to the Broadway stage in the songs of Hamilton; from the heights of Amanda Gorman’s eloquent verses on the Inaugural stage to the quick snippets of TikTok poets whose voices go viral. Within this renaissance, spoken word poetry also offers immense educational potential. By harnessing the power of mnemonic devices and rhymed language, which many primary school educators still use, spoken word poetry is an effective and engaging learning strategy for students of all ages. Alora Young speaks to the evolution of the spoken word, from ancient classics like The Iliad and Beowulf to modern art, and demonstrates the power of performance as she makes a case for the spoken word as the powerful storytelling form of the future.

Few have borne the brunt of America’s founding intersectional prejudices more than Black women and girls. We live in a country full of contradictions, where the bodies of Black women are often simultaneously despised and commodified, from the history of slavery to the beauty industry. Living with these contradictions led Alora Young to research the names and history of her foremothers, immortalizing them with poetry. Young discusses the historical importance of Black women in America, from contemporaries of Rosa Parks such as Claudette Colvin to the hardworking but unrecognized women who are left out of history altogether. In her passionate talk, Young speaks to why and how Black women have been held at arm’s length from the American dream, and how her generation is changing that.

When does girlhood end and womanhood begin? For Black girls and women, far too soon, argues Alora Young. As a young woman whose own family history is full of shotgun weddings and teenage pregnancies, Young has seen firsthand just how quickly girlhood can be stripped away. By voicing this reality through spoken word poetry, Young not only names what her foremothers have lost but seeks to reclaim her own girlhood before it’s too late. Through performance and discussion, Young dissects the historical patterns which have led to Black girls being viewed as women, and discusses the effect this has on the minds of Black girls across America.