What a great project, and kudos to the teacher for offering this type of assignment to her students. The student's video made the poem more powerful to me, very thought provoking.

perspective from a woman of color? telling off the colonizer?? LOVE IT!!!!

That is effing awesome!

Ooh, I got chills watching that. Nicely done!

Best. Mashup. Ever. That Samantha is a talented individual.

Kudos indeed; that's extremely well-done.

Beautiful. Would that a Disney princess would actually talk like that. Now that would be a role model for our girls!

Its satisfying to watch, and no doubt has a quality that can only be the result of hard work on the part of the student, but does it actually inspire rather than state critical perspective? Granted, the recontextualizing "Slip of the Tongue" was interesting, but I feel like the core idea was quintessentially the same; there was little there waiting to be interpreted. Not that I in anyway disagree with the point they're trying to make; I think the piece (like the poem it uses) gives voice to a perspective that is too often voiceless- in a general sense, it's good that she's disseminating it regardless.

The question however, and this is one that I have also with respect to the original poem, speaking as a poet and educator, is: does it evoke critical thought on the part of the audience that would lead to the construction/reconstruction of a new perspective on the issues at hand, or does it simply offer an alternative worldview (albeit one I believe to be more righteous or just) that the audience must either passively accept or deny?

I would first like to acknowledge the person who produced this film, and also Bena Li who hipped me to it. I deeply appreciate that this poem that was performed in 2003 is still resonating. To address some of the comments, I have my own personal conflicts with this poem. For one, I wrote it back when I was a sophomore in college and had JUST understood why issues of gender were relevant to me as a male. Had I let the poem sit in my mind for one more year, I might have concluded that it's not in my place to write a poem where I speak from the perspective of a woman. The purpose of this poem is focused less on the woman whose perspective I had the audacity to "speak" from, and more on the "me" who had the audacity to holler at her. This poem was written from the perspective of someone who just got out of a Feminist Theory class but still felt like going to the club to get their freak on.

You do realize that Disney's Pocahontas was protested by the Powhatan people, don't you?
That this film is full of lies. And the fact that you want to represent this wonderful poem with this terrible film is ridiculous.

Does your colleague have any more mashups from students to share?

I found this website, article, video, and poem by way of racialicious.com. I cosign what others have written about this remarkable mash up. Much respect to Adriel Luis & Samantha Figuero and also to Mary Christianakis, the teacher who gave the mash up assignment to her students. The result is a very powerful art work that I believe does inspire and certainly can prompt critical thinking & discussion.

Adriel Luis, I very much appreciate the comment you wrote here about your "Slip of the Tongue" poem. I'm glad that you didn't let this poem "sit in your mind for one year". You might have never written it-and what a great loss that would have been. I'm definitely sharing this poem/video with persons in my circle both online and offline. I also intend to read more articles on sociological images.

Thanks again!!
-an African American sista