Hearing about #BNV2016 and there are some thoughts on Twitter. I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot while on my break from slam, and how while it can be so healing to share my voice, slam has become too triggering for me personally this past year (not Van Slam in particular, just in general). Of course it is up to me to take care of myself and I’m glad I was able to recognize that I needed to step back and work on self-care and stabilizing, but not everyone can always manage that and I do feel like sometimes there is pressure to put my deepest traumas on display. Anyways, this isn’t at all meant to be like a “call-out” post at slam or anything like that; I just think that there are some good conversations happening right now surrounding this, as discussions on mental health are always radically important in any community especially when such a large group of people with diverse experiences are brought together like this, and I wanna remind my fellow poet friends to take care of yourselves and for us to be here for each other in whatever capacities we can. 🌟💛🌻 How can we best support each other? Let’s talk about this.
