For the third year in a row, “Words on the Mind” has drawn an ever larger and more varied audience. Representatives from all five undergraduate peer-counseling groups are also present in addition to staff from Student Mental Health Services. The audience itself is a veritable cross-section of the College, with some attendees never having been to a spoken word event before. One student rises to describe her struggle with identity as a woman of color; another laments the isolation engendered by the superficiality of social interactions on campus. The sheer passion and raw emotion pouring forth from each speaker is a testament to the community that Speak Out Loud has established. Maura D. Church ’14, a member of the organization’s board, considers these events a supportive forum for student self-expression. “This can be a positive space and a space for mental health and art to kind of be joined in a positive way. It may not necessarily be a certain kind of emotion that’s generating the art or generating the poem, but the space is framed in a way that allows any kind of art to happen,” Church says.
Cassandra E. Euphrat Weston ’14, current member and former co-president of Speak Out Loud, appreciates the openness of the space in encouraging audience members to share their experiences. “People come and tell stories that they didn’t plan to share, but they were sitting in the audience and they feel moved to share something, and all of these kinds of sharing tend to be very personal and brave, and it’s a beautiful space every year,” Euphrat Weston says. “I think that each person approaches their art and this topic in their own way, and our hope is that people find this a healing space. I’ve also had friends tell me personally either that they [found] or they expect[ed] to find it a triggering space.”
A speaker will occasionally preface their piece with the phrase “trigger warning,” cautioning the audience that the deeply personal nature of the forthcoming content may serve as an emotional trigger. Yet everything that is shared—from stories about physical and emotional insecurities to encounters with depression and suicide to commentaries about Harvard in general—is affecting not only because of its content, but also because each vignette resonates with the audience members and their own personal experiences. Particularly insightful moments are met with a chorus of snaps from listeners.
“This is a great way to make the issue visible, make the help visible, and make the fact that there’s a supportive, strong community that’s willing to listen also visible as well,” Church says. In addition to open mics, Speak Out Loud also runs weekly workshops, which are open to all students and encourage conversation about any subject. The workshop before this year’s “Words on the Mind” featured conversation about mental health issues, balancing this heavier topic with a corresponding focus on the benefits of self-care.
Current co-president Oluwaseun L. Animashaun ’14 sees workshops as a way in which the organization promotes discussion about important issues through writing and sharing. “I definitely think now—with the structures we have in place—that people can actually not only take what they’ve heard and talk about it with their roommates, but also use that to create art in their own right.”
“A MORE ANALYTICAL LENS”
For Kwan, art is simultaneously a reflection of personal experience and a cerebral process that provokes thought in both the artist and the audience. Last fall, Kwan worked on a show titled “Counterpoint” at the Loeb Drama Center Mainstage, a collaboration between the Harvard-Radcliffe Modern Dance Company and the Harvard Ballet Company. Kwan’s piece, “Safe Space,” channeled dance to discuss sexual assault on campus.
With the piece, Kwan hoped to raise certain questions about a subject that often goes undiscussed: “What does it mean to feel safe on campus? What does it mean to create something that ensures someone’s safety? Is that even possible? Those kinds of issues,” Kwan says. In the spring, Kwan also worked with the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention & Response and the Harvard College Women’s Center to produce an experimental show called “Yes or No?” at the Agassiz Theatre that explored similar themes.
To Kwan, these performances were meant to intellectually examine deeply personal issues and engage the audience in important dialogues. While acknowledging the raw emotional power of events such as the mental health open mic, Kwan also see a place for more structured investigations of the same ideas. “When you listen to a poem that is someone pouring their heart out in terms of their emotional experience, hopefully the audience has a visceral reaction to that. But then, when you see something thoughtful, that looks at something through a more analytical lens, hopefully the audience thinks about that too,” Kwan says.
Perhaps the greatest strength of Harvard’s arts community is its solidarity. Although every individual approaches the issue of mental health from a different perspective, the community hopes to be an accessible way to address difficult issues. Artists often explore deeply personal and sensitive topics, and their artwork provides a powerful medium from which discussions can originate. As students increasingly call for mental health reform and dialogue, Kwan views art as an essential tool for catalyzing the changes many want to see. “[Art] has the power to make the audience think and feel, and both at the same time—and hopefully in the future, do.”
—Staff writer Alan R. Xie can be reached at alan.xie@thecrimson.com.