“Most of what people are hesitant to speak out about is an ugly truth. Art helps make it more appealing.” – Tish Jones

By Lizzie Babashova

Staff Writer

On Oct. 27 Tish Jones – poet, educator, and organizer – cut time out of her busy schedule to come hang out with the students at the Coon Rapids campus. She performed a couple of her poems, answered questions and talked about spoken word poetry, hip-hop and her work in the community.

She started off with defining spoken word as poetry written with the intent to be performed. And because so much of her work stems from hip-hop culture, she also defined what hip-hop means. Hip-hop is a social justice-based culture and movement circa the Bronx, 1973. Hip-hop is also made up of nine elements: DJ, emceeing/MC/rap, graffiti/style writing, b-boying/b-girling/break dancing, knowledge of self, beat boxing, entrepreneurialism, language and fashion.

Jones spoke in-depth about her purpose as a spoken word poet, discussing topics that need to be heard. A strong supporter of the Twin Cities community, her focus has always been the liberation of black children through humanity and education. She believes that through the finding, developing, shaping, applying and sharing of their voices, they can transform themselves.

Jones’s poetry urges the public to take notice of our country’s emphasis on capitalism, social class order, undistributed wealth, and the (in)justice system. Her spoken word style greatly resembles that of rap, generally keeping the same tone of voice throughout the poem, however that doesn’t lessen the impact her words have. She has made impressive progress in validating hip-hop culture, as well as showing how beneficial and important it is to communities.

Jones played a video of her popular poem “Tracks” which also explained much of the meaning behind the poem. Ancestry, legacy, hair of African-American women, standards of beauty, school, prison, and her purpose are the pillars of this poem.

She also performed another poem that has never been video taped because of her hesitance to give it a name, making its performance quite special. The poem was a conversation between herself and a friend who signified hip-hop with turn table noises she made herself, going in and out of popular songs “99 Problems” by Jay Z, “The Way I Am” by Eminem and “Phone Home” by Lil Wayne. A line that stuck out because of its depth was, “If you don’t die for doing the right thing, then what are you going to die for?”

Jones is the founder, executive and artistic director of the nonprofit organization

TruArtSpeaks. For more information about the work she is doing or upcoming spoken word performances, visit: http://truartspeaks.org