The power of poetry

Dominique Oliver-Dares started writing as a therapeutic exercise, a way to heal the injuries of her soul. It wasn’t long before she began to share the healing power of her words with her community.

“I started writing when I was 12 and performing when I was about 17,” says Dominique, a poet, spoken-word performer and final-year student in International Development Studies. “I write about things that irritate me, things that hurt me, things that confuse me.

“It started as a therapeutic thing and then it took a social change narrative, which has become more important to me.”

Specifically, the Darmouth, NS-born Dominique writes most often about the issues, challenges and future hopes of the African Nova Scotian community. “I’m really invested in the black community and that’s what I tend to write about,” she says. “It’s a big passion of mine.”

That passion is not only evident in the words Dominique puts to paper, but also in the way those words emerge when she performs her poetry. She’s taken the stage at African Heritage Month events, Poets 4 Change poetry slams and numerous community events, in front of audiences ranging from students to citizens to former Governor-General of Canada Michaelle Jean.

Dominique says she gets a powerful thrill from performing.

“Sitting down with one or two people in a small group, I can be shy. But I can stand up in front of 20, 30, maybe hundreds of people and bare my soul, my deepest thoughts and feelings. And I just feel so free afterwards.

“I often shake, and it’s not because I’m nervous, it’s more like excitement. When I walk off the stage I feel lighter.”

Culture coordinator

Her art is just one way Dominique invests in the African Nova Scotian community. She’s also an event coordinator for the Black Student Advising Centre, a position that makes her an integral promoter of black and African culture at Dalhousie and in the community.

In the past several weeks, Dominique has helped spread the word about events such as “Racism is Killing Us Softly: Narratives of Young Black Men” and “Remember Africville: A Dalhousie Journey to Africville.” The latter event takes place this Friday, February 26.

See also: Student perspectives on African Heritage Month; Celebrating African Heritage Month at Dal and beyond

Dominique is applying to the Indigenous, Black and Mi’kmaw Initiative at the Schulich School of Law, where she hopes to continue her studies after graduating with her IDS degree in May. “It’s a great opportunity for Mi’kmaw and black students to be admitted into law school, because the justice system is not somewhere that we’re represented,” she says.

Focusing on her application has meant turning down opportunities to perform at African Heritage Month events this year. But Dominique’s passion for her community — and the month-long celebration of it — remains as strong as ever.

“I think we often, as black people, forget our own contributions to society. It’s just a great opportunity for us to be reminded of our role and to highlight the accomplishments of our people.

“For us to feel that inclusion can boost the morale of our community and the morale of our students at Dalhousie.”

The following is one of Dominique's poems.

300 Year Old Plan

By Dominique Oliver-Dares

This is when the psychological becomes so methodical
the appearance of the process mimics the biological
when our spirit was an obstacle that slave driver thought logical
Lynch figured how to break a whole race and devised a chronicle

First toy and destroy to her the concept of a man
show her once source of protection dismantled in your hand
Remove pride from his side and make the woman wear the pants
she'll raise strong bodied sons with weak minds as they've planed

Then comes shallow sons conditioned only to survive
The image of her man destroyed by white hands will be revived
Deface him and degrade him so he won’t act out of pride
and he will never understand that there was love within those lies

Now we have the daughters, breeders for the slaughter
Strong minded but scared from the things mama taught her
Looking down upon her man this is where strategy brought her
and that man needed understanding not demanding, but it was not her

See black men become dependent while his wife is independent
Annihilating their respect, to our regret they didn't end it
Keep us down, keep us around, I promise we'll defend it
Take our hope give us hate and our culture never mend it

Some slipped through the system but the masses won’t listen
Crabs in a bucket, self-hatred is the mission
Going with the flow denying the gift that insight gives them
Tomorrow's looking shady breeding babies for submission

Fallen heroes of civil rights would cringe within their graves
at the state of our self-hatred and the way that we behave
It’s like they found the biggest clowns and threw them on stage
Unbeknownst their empty tongues are the depictions of our race

My generation will never know the height of passion that must be felt
to know what’s right and give your life to something bigger than yourself
Casualties for the cause, so many sacrifices were stealth
No glory in their names, but there was momentum in their death

I hope my people see the history in the equality that we claim
Recognize the pride in all brown shades and make them see the same
This war is internal, amongst ourselves we must wave white flags
because we're still confined within the lines of lynch's 300 year old way