Alix Olson


Alix L. Olson is an American poet who works exclusively in spoken word. She graduated from Wesleyan University in 1997 and uses her work to address issues of capitalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, misogyny, and patriarchy. She identifies as a queer feminist.

Early years and education

Alix Olson's parents were both politically-minded professors, ideals she believed were passed along to her, as she recalls some of her earliest memories involving sitting under a table coloring protest signs.
Olson attended Stockholm University in 1996, received a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 2007 and received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, with a Graduate Certificate in Advanced Feminist Studies.

Career

Olson taught as Faculty at the Juniper Institute for Young Writers at University of Massachusetts at Amherst in Summer 2011 and 2012, Faculty at CSU Summer Arts, California State University, Fresno, CA and at the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val Kill's Young Women's Leadership.
In 1997, Olson began performing at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, where she quickly made the 1998 Nuyorican Poetry Slam team. She and her fellow Nuyorican team members Lynne Procope, Steve Colman and Guy LeCharles Gonzalez would go on to win the 1998 National Poetry Slam Championship in Austin, TX. This championship would lead to Soft Skull Press publishing the anthology Burning Down the House which showcased poetry by Olson, Procope, Coleman and Gonzalez as well as poetry by the 1998 Nuyorican Team's coach, Roger Bonair-Agard. In 1999 Alix Olson beat Stacey Ann Chin in a slam off giving her the title of the OUTWRITE slam champion.
Olson went on to record and publish three spoken word CDs Built Like That, Independence Meal and Protagonist. Olson was the subject of the documentary Left Lane: On the Road with Folk Poet Alix Olson, which was released in 2005 and directed by Samantha Farinella. "Making cameos on the DVD are Holly Near and Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls and Patricia Ireland, the former director of the National Organization for Women." On June 11, 2006, Alix Olson co-hosted the Sixth Annual Outmusic Awards with Ari Gold, at the Knitting Factory in Rochester, New York. She is also the editor of the spoken word anthology, Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution with a foreword by Eve Ensler. This collection of essays and poetry was published by Seal Press in 2007 and features work from artists such as Patricia Smith, Eileen Myles, Sarah Jones, Suheir Hammad, Staceyann Chin, Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Lynn Breedlove and Michelle Tea. Additionally, Alix Olson's poem "Warrior" is referenced in the book Fight like a Girl: How to be a Fearless Feminist by Megan Seely.
On July 8, 2014, blogger Justyn Hintze wrote about the Apple Inc , which seemed to be exhibiting sexist programming. According to Hintze this came to her attention on attempting to engrave her new shiny iDevice with an Alix Olson lyric "I’ll give myself a lube job, shake my broomstick 'til my clit throbs," a lyric which she describes as "feminist, sex-positive, and it makes me smile. Every. single. time." The blog and subsequent campaign on Twitter - - has garnered international media attention.
Olson's work "has been featured on a variety of NPR programs, HBO's Def Poetry Jam, Air America with Rachel Maddow, in the New York Times, Washington Post, Curve Magazine," as well as "Girlfriends Magazine, The Advocate, OUT Magazine, Lesbian Review of Books. She has also made appearances on the covers of Lambda Book Report, Lavender Lens, Velvet Park magazine" and Ms. Magazine. Alix has appeared on the nationally syndicated Air America's "Unfiltered" radio, as well as on Oxygen television, CNN, HBO, In the Life, WXPN's World Cafe with David Dye, and local radio stations around the country." Additionally, she "has headlined national conferences for the National Organization for Women, GenderPac, and the Lesbian Summit. Most recently, Alix performed for one million people at the Washington, D.C. March for Women's Lives. She has headlined international poetry festivals in Portugal, the Netherlands, England and Australia."
Olson also received her PhD in Political Science and a Graduate Certificate in Advanced Feminist Studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is an Assistant Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Emory University-Oxford College.

Critical analysis

bell hooks has described Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution of which Olson is the editor, as "daring to be heard.. to resurrect you."
Historian and activist Howard Zinn has called Alix "an ingenious poet, a brilliant performer, a funny person, a serious thinker. Quite simply, extraordinary."
A critique in Utne Magazine's website calls Olson "...the spoken word diva everyone's talking about."
In describing her live performances, The Progressive Magazine calls Alix "an electrifying performer who seduces the audience with wit and energy, spinning tales of life on the road between her fiery poems. A sharpshooter with theatrical flair, Olson oozes both love and rage." Progressive Magazine has also referenced Alix Olson as a "word warrior."
Ms. Magazine has described Alix Olson as a "road-poet-on-a-mission."

Books