Poet and activist Alix Olson to perform

Internationally known spoken word artist, poet and activist Alix Olson performs at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Avenue. The public is invited to attend the event free of charge.

Olson, a member of the 1998 Nuyorican National Championship Slam Team and winner of the 1999 OutWrite National Slam, has toured throughout the world. She has performed at hundreds of colleges, clubs and festivals, including the FalDura Festival in Porto, Portugal; the International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands; Amsterdam’s Gay Games; and the LGBT Cultural Arts Festival in London.

Her debut CD, Built Like That, earned 2002 OUTMUSIC award nominations for outstanding debut artist, female producer and songwriter. “I believe people are see-through if you hold them up to the light; I believe people are enlightening if you plug’em in right,” Olson says.

Olson has been featured in various magazines, most recently on the covers of Ms. Magazine and Lambda Report. She has appeared on Oxygen television network, CNN and WXPN’s  World Café with David Dye. Sharing the stage with such artists and activists as Michael Moore, Pete Seeger, Howard Zinn, Christine Lavin and Ntzoke Shange, Olson has headlined various events, including the National Organization for Women’s National Conference and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s “Creating Change.”

According to historian Howard Zinn: “Alix brought me to my feet. She is an ingenious poet, a brilliant performer, a funny person and a serious thinker. She is, quite simply, extraordinary.”

Olson’s Bates appearance is co-sponsored by Seed, an alternative magazine of ideas and the arts, and OUTfront, a campus organization that facilitates education and discussion of gender and sexuality issues while working to change intolerant attitudes.