Student Theses
Date of Award
Spring 4-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Department
English
Language
English
First Advisor
William Orchard
Abstract
When the world silences her, can slam poetry become her voice? Elizabeth Acevedo, an author and poet, uses her beautiful piece of slam poetry to explore how language can empower marginalized voices, speaking on behalf of those who are usually silenced. The Poet X is a verse novel that narrates the powerful story of a young Afro-Latina girl, Xiomara Batista, who navigates the intersecting pressures of school bullies, family issues, religious conservatism, patriarchal rules, and racialized body politics in her Harlem community. This research engages with Acevedo’s work to focus on how slam poetry serves as a powerful outlet and refuge for Xiomara’s self-expression, resistance, and healing, allowing her to reclaim agency over her body and identity in ways that the Catholic Church, school, and family withheld from her. It also addresses how societal and cultural narratives hypersexualize and silence young women of color by placing Xiomara's story within larger conversations about Black Latina embodiment. Xiomara's poetry reclaim her body from criticism, and it becomes a place of autonomy through the embodied medium of slam; her writing transforms trauma into a piece of art and resistance by bridging the personal and political. The novel further emphasizes the important role of community-centered spaces, such as the famous Nuyorican Poets Café and Xiomara’s school poetry club, which create safe environments and serve as powerful sites of resistance, offering liberatory alternatives to dominant power structures. These spaces have foundations in the African diasporic performance and Latinx oral culture. They foster a community that gives Xiomara the opportunity to discover new practices and forge a self-defined identity outside the societal constraints that seek to define her. Ultimately, Acevedo positions slam poetry as an act of self-creation, connecting individual experiences to broader struggles for justice and visibility.
Recommended Citation
Leung Yu, Stefanny, "Giving Voice to the Body: Slam Poetry in The Poet X" (2023). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/qc_etds/20
Included in
African American Studies Commons, Africana Studies Commons, African Languages and Societies Commons, Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons, Education Commons, Latin American Languages and Societies Commons, Latina/o Studies Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Poetry Commons, Women's Studies Commons
