Total Pageviews

6.29.2012

Not A Game

My latest piece... Still working on memorizing it. Let me know what you think!

6.23.2012

Art Is Bonfire Sunday July 15, 2012




Poets, performance artists and our friends from all over the city are coming together once again at Promontory Point, where for one night Art Is Bonfire and THE FIRE IS THE CYPHER.

The event is completely free and open to the public.

Hosted by Yours Truly! 

Questions? Email tiffb.clarity@gmail.com

6.08.2012

I Can't #icant (spoken word poem)


Have you ever been as high as the sun? Like chased the fire

But the fire didn’t run?  You know like freeze, you’re IT fire…

But the fire didn’t freeze? Wanna hit this blunt?


I froze and got burnt like California trees. And California love feels like wildfire to me. So at 16
I'm feeling California free. Cause I been sitting around the fire with my sibblings
singing “because I got high” Though we forgot the chorus. And forgot
what DARE stands for, so of course we forgot our chores. Little sister
speaks  ageless wisdom from behind a fat swisher sweet
From the front porch to hot boxing in the bathroom and rolling on the floor laughing
in back room. Mommy must be back from work, I heard somebody say
I don't hear that vacuum. Now she's coming up the stairs. She hears our laughter, smells
her fears--automatic response was tears. She pokes her head in, her eyes pierce.
"It's just weed mom." sounds like something I might have said. But if I could said anything
you can bet it would be, I mean you can bet I would beg, you can bet I would plead, 

Please don’t give me that look.  Don’t make your eyes so hard,
Your lips so tight. Don’t make your nose wrinkled. Don’t

Make your tongue into a knife.

Like you don't know that suicide is high  
Under these cloudy skies and 
I was stuck on this block, with nothin but smoke and
Rain in my eyes before I decided to
To fly. I mean abondon my wings for the chance to see a 
Christian concept of Heaven fade and enter another stage,

where Kool-Aid and Doritos taste heaven made or

heaven sent to me. Or heaven sent for me like God said
Can somebody please go get Tiffanie?
Hear I come!
Oh don't give me that look.

I know you're lonley and you're vulnerable and you're scared. But this is not you're story.
This is not the scratchy voice of an aging alcoholic, yeah I drink but i'm saying 
you started at 8— 8am, 8 years old. You were 8 years old when you had your first sip.
Addicted by 11 and I was 7 when our home was raided by narcs. They put an AK 47 in my
baby brothers face. His daddy caught a case and they took us all away.
But these eyes have never shut all day 
just to tweak in the dark. And hese hands have never had the shakes or begged 
For meds from a hospital bed. This mouth has never lied 
about going to buy ice cream, and getting high instead.
So please before you shut that door... don’t make your eyes so hard, 
your lips so tight. Don’t make your nose wrinkled. 
Don’t make your tongue into a knife. Because  
it's not your fault, nor mine that
We share soil and blood and history but this..
This shit right here.
We can't share this.









Tiff Beatty
6/8/12

Thoughts?!?!

6.05.2012

Women Voices Rising (written for the Op Ed Project blog)

This blog was originally published at http://theopedproject.wordpress.com/
On April 28, I attended The OpEd Project’s “Write to Change the World” seminar, led by Deborah Siegel and Michele Weldon in Chicago.  In May, I implemented a program called Women Voices Rising–along with my colleagues Nancy Marin, Gema Rodriguez, and Gloria Coc–to serve as forum for discussion and development of female leadership in Belize and Nicaragua. I created about half of the content, pulling from my background and training in poetry, performance, and leadership development. The other half was adapted from The Op Ed Project’s “I am an expert” exercise. Overall, the workshops educated women on the importance of voice and diversity of representation in public discourse and challenged participants to explore and express their own creativity, knowledge and opinions.
Currently, the Women Voices Rising team is developing and sharing information and related opportunities with participants and other stakeholders. In Nicaragua, we are working through the volunteer coordinator office at Universidad Centroamericana to continue the work we began with emerging leaders there. In Belize Nancy Marin, who is developing a women’s resource center in her community in San Ignacio, is integrating this program into its mission. Also in Belize, we made a promising connection with Ann-Marie Williams, Executive Director of the National Women’s Commission, who attended a presentation and responded with a lot of excitement about the importance and potential of the project.
Tiffanie Beatty (Seminar)
Beatty with the young women who participated in the seminar in Nicaragua.
Tiffanie Beatty (Seminar 2)
A young woman fills in the blanks to The OpEd Project’s “I am an expert” exercise.
Tiffanie Beatty (Seminar 3)
Tiff Beatty and Nancy Marin 
Tiffanie Beatty (Seminar 4)
Beatty with participants in San Ignacio Belize.
The work our team is doing in Belize and Nicaragua is a just one product of a larger program coordinated by a Chicago nonprofit called Heartland International which promotes the development of civil society in emerging democracies around the world. In partnership with Casa Alianza, Nicaragua and the Women’s Issue Network (WIN), Belize and funding from the U.S. State Department Heartland implemented Developing Grassroots Organizations for Women: An Exchange Program for Emerging Grassroots Leaders in Belize, Nicaragua and the U.S. In this program, young leaders from each country collaborate on projects to implement in Belize and Nicaragua to promote the development of women and women’s organizations. The grant period for these projects will be wrapping up this summer, however, my colleagues and I are determined to see the work of Women Voices Rising continue and grow across the Americas. We also look forward to more collaborations with our friends at OpEd
For more information, please email womenvoicesrising@gmial.com or visit www.womenvoicesrising.com.