Poet, Black activist Kyla Jenee Lacey performs at CMU
Writer, performer, and visual artist Kyla Jenee Lacey performs slam poetry as a part of Black History Month, Wednesday, Feb. 8 in Opperman Auditorium. Lacey was raised in Seminole County, Florida, and draws from her experiences growing up to write her poems.
Kyla Jenee Lacey, a poet, spoken word performer and Black activist performed at Central Michigan University Wednesday, Feb. 8 as part of the Multicultural Academic Student Services Black History Month events.
Hosted by the CMU Program Board, Lacey stood in front of a mostly full Opperman Auditorium and shared some of her poetry, much of which focuses on issues such as racism, sexism and relationships.
For a little under an hour, Lacey performed many poems, such as her most popular,“White Privilege,” to a crowd full of CMU students. Throughout, cheers of support were shouted from audience members after certain one-liners, and every single poem was followed by a round of applause.
“It's just very much ingrained in our society that no matter what we are given you worked for,” Lacey said. “Even if we were given something, we earned it by some weird birthright or some sort of entitlement.”
Lacey explained why her poem “White Privilege”' makes some people uncomfortable.
“I think when you tell someone that the reason you have this thing is for this reason, or the reason your life isn't difficult is for this reason, it really causes a lot of cognitive dissonance,” she said.
“White Privilege,” which has 375,000 views on Write About Now’s Youtube page, has gone viral a few times but is best known for when a Tennessee teacher was fired for showing it in class.
“When [the teacher] got in trouble for showing my work to his class, one of the things that was stated was that I was not a credible source,” Lacey said. “ And that is kind of the overarching theme is that Black people are not credible sources to their own experience.
“It's also saying that these people aren't intelligent enough to recount their own history from their own perspective.”
Writer, performer, and visual artist Kyla Jenee Lacey performs slam poetry as a part of Black History Month, Wednesday, Feb. 8 in Opperman Auditorium. Lacey performed one of her most well known poems, "White Privilege", which she says changed her life.
One of the most well-received poems Lacey read was about gun violence in schools titled “Vilomah.” Though, throughout this poem the entire audience was silent, giving all their attention solely to Lacey and the words spoken into the microphone.
Lacey said she is proud her work being labeled “anti-racist propaganda” by Fox News Anchor Laura Ingrahm and is somewhat flattered to have a poem be considered banned material. In the end, she is only telling her own story from her own perspective, and she understands some people might not like that.
“I think the more you tell me to shut up the more I will talk,” Lacey said. “There are certain things, you know, you get to a certain age, you can look back on your childhood and you evaluate where you came from and how you got there.
“Growing up in a very predominantly white space and not being considered intelligent, even though that wasn't what the test scores were saying, I was just very much like, you're not gonna try my intelligence. I'm smart.
“So I think there's still that part of me like, nah, I'm gonna get the last words.”
According to her website, thatswritekyla.com, Lacey has had her work published on platforms such as Buzzfeed and Afropunk and has been written about as well as featured on websites including The New York Times, the Atlantic and the Washington Post.
The Multicultural Academic Student Services Black History Month 2023 event calendar can be found here.
