On Feb. 22, students and faculty gathered in the CUB MPR to listen to the spoken word of Maria James-Thiaw, a 1996 Shippensburg University alumna. James-Thiaw is the founder of the Reclaim Artist Collective, which promotes art to marginalized groups. 

James-Thiaw began by sharing with us that we were sitting in the same room in which she performed her first spoken word piece. She shared the first piece she wrote about her unwavering confidence as a freshman in college as she faced conflict with her peers, whom she later became friends with in her career.

She shared her choreopoem — a play written in poetic form — titled “HairStory,” following the journey of an ambitious black woman who aspires to be a journalist as she interviews women of color about experiences with their hair. She emphasizes that people of color who are marginalized because of their hair is a tool of white supremacy. 

She read a few poems from her newest book, “Count Each Breath.” Her first poem was called “Rage,” inspired by a series of chronic illnesses she faced throughout her life. Her presence immediately filled the room as soon as she began to read and mesmerize listeners. “Firelight dances on the wick, but never ceases to burn.” 

She shared with us that all of her poems are aimed to be a commentary on social justice, most of them regarding racial disparities in healthcare. She shared the implicit biases she has witnessed within a prejudiced healthcare system. She shared a poem called “Chronic,” sharing how white illnesses are tended to much more swiftly than that of a black person. “Red means emergency. Red means stop. But red is dull and unassuming on brown skin.” 

She later shared a poem titled “Community,” a poem about living across the street from a white supremacist during the BLM movement. “That’s a true story,” she shared with us after reading, “and he’s still bald-headed, by the way.” The audience chuckled.

She shared another poem dedicated to her friends who passed in 2020, titled “Sisters Eulogy” – “Decorate a hearse like a wedding car. ‘Here lies another world-changing woman, gone too soon.’”

She shared one final performance from her book “Reclaiming My Time,” titled “A Fuse Blew,” sharing her outrage with the death of Trayvon Martin. At the end of the presentation, she then signed and gave out copies of her book "Reclaiming my Time."

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