Arts Mag - Slam Poetry 
By: Amy Xu

Art has been with us since the beginning of time. It allows us to express ourselves, and has preserved history for thousands of generations.

Alongside the normalisation of free speech, slam poetry rose in popularity. During the AB block, Madame Mofazali’s French 12 class learned about social injustices of the world through a variety of media. They were able to create moving slam poetries after being inspired by the movie, Inch'Allah Dimanche and the artist, Grand Corps Malade. 

The movie depicts an immigrant Algerian family in France that is met with cultural gaps and discrimination through the perspective of the wife. The main character, Zouina, lives a life of misery as she is bound by the abusive and controlling rules of her husband. The Algerian family is not accustomed to life in France as they do not understand that women do not have the sole purpose of doing housework. However unlike her mother in law and husband, Zouina yearns for a life filled with independence and wishes to explore topics like sexuality and women’s rights. She desperately seeks for help from an Algerian woman that is like her but only to find that their ideals are completely different. She comes to understand that the true people who she sees herself in are the strong independent French women that she meets along the way. 

The class then combined Zouina’s story with inspiration from Grand Corps Malade to express slam poetries that fight for women's rights. They took Grand Corps Malade’s ability to turn his and others’ pain and struggles into fascinating and empowering poetry loved by many. The class discussed the importance of women rights and discovering one's identity. Slams led readers down a metaphorical and empowering journey of Zouina growing into French society and away from the expectations of her family.

Women’s rights are ever so important to talk about now considering the social injustices in certain countries like Iran and the United States. American women are being banned from making decisions over their body and future due to Roe V. Wade being overturned. Iranian women are in grave danger and getting murdered for disobeying the unrealistic beliefs that government officials force onto the country. These women are suppressed by fear which further emphasizes how crucial it is to speak up and fight for them.

Click on the PDFs below to see the slams:
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