Native American Community Academy’s “Radical Poets Brave Voices” teaches give-and-take of slam poetry to Indigenous students

By Sara Atencio-Gonzales, The Paper. – Students at the Native American Community Academy (NACA) took to the microphone last Wednesday evening for a night centered on poetry, storytelling and the power of sharing their own experiences.

NACA’s Literacy Night, held Sept. 9 at the school’s CNM campus, featured a student poetry slam and open mic where students could share poetry, music, short stories and other original writing. The event also determined the six students who will make up NACA’s Slam Team.

For Sarita Sol Gonzalez, coach of the NACA Radical Poets Brave New Voices team, performing poetry is about more than delivering words on a stage. Gonzalez said she grew up in poetry slam and has seen firsthand the relationship that develops between a performer and the people listening.

“I’ve always been a very passionate performer. I grew up within poetry slam, and I love theater,” says Gonzalez. “I’ve been able to learn the give-and-take of the audience, and I think that’s really important and powerful for students to learn.” 

That exchange, Gonzalez says, can give students an opportunity not only to express themselves, but to know their words have been heard.

“There is an emotional give-and-take from expressing how you feel, and then having people understand that,” says Gonzalez. “I really want these students to experience and understand.” 

The opportunity carries particular significance at NACA, where Gonzalez emphasizes that students come from Indigenous communities across New Mexico. Poetry gives them a platform to tell stories that may not often reach audiences outside their own communities.

“In many cases, Indigenous stories aren’t commonly told within the wider media, and so this allows these students to tell their own stories currently to family in their community – but eventually moving to the wider Albuquerque community and even farther than that once we actually take the team,” says Gonzalez. 

The poetry slam is also the beginning of what organizers hope will become a much larger stage for the students. Gonzalez has been working with NACA students through an after-school poetry class for several years, and Wednesday’s competition established the team that will continue performing together. 

The newly selected team will not have to wait long for its next audience. Their first major performance is scheduled for this Friday, Sept. 11 at the New Mexico State Fair.

“They will be performing at 6 o’clock at the Native American Pavilion, and they will be giving a showcase of some of the poetry that they’ve both competed with here, as well as some of their other work,” says Gonzalez. 

The team is ultimately being prepared to take its poetry beyond New Mexico, including toward Brave New Voices, a youth poetry festival and competition.

But Gonzalez hopes an audience remains an essential part of making the students’ work possible, whether they are performing at their school or eventually taking their stories to a larger stage.

“Come out and support us. Come out and see these students tell their own stories,” says Gonzalez. “Not only do they want to, but the give-and-take of the audience and the performer doesn’t exist without the audience.”