By: Saije Rusimovici, Staff Writer
Editor’s note: The Peak would like to note that Josh Ralla, one of our staff members, is an executive director of TEDxSFU, but had no involvement in writing this article.
Sumaiya Tufail began the Slam Poetry Club at SFU last summer as a way of creating a safe space for racialized artists to express themselves through poetry. Growing up in Surrey, Tufail was inspired by her Grade 11 Humanities teacher after introducing her to spoken word poetry as a way for students to speak their truths.
Tufail found it “a cool way to express [her] emotions and find power through art,” and began performing slam poetry. At the age of 20, she began to post her poetry on Instagram. Tufail has been blogging, writing, and building her platform over the last seven years.
She said one of her biggest goals was to eventually become a TED Talk speaker, adding that she can’t believe it’s happened so quickly. The TEDxSFU annual program organizes independent TED conferences for “industry professionals, advocates, educators, and storytellers” in Vancouver. Tufail’s TEDxSFU Talk “unveils poetry as an act of resistance and advocacy,” informed by her journey as a slam poet.
Slam poetry, otherwise known as spoken word poetry, is an arts movement that began in the 1980s as a stage-based way for vocal delivery to convey the emotion in language, as opposed to formal written poetry. The roots of spoken word are linked to the anti-colonial Négritude movement, “a literary and ideological movement led by French-speaking Black writers and intellectuals from France’s colonies in Africa and the Caribbean in the 1930s.” Modern poets continue to carry on this tradition by divulging themes such as injustice in sex, race, and gender.
“In the Lower Mainland it is very difficult to find a poetry space with majority BIPOC representation,” Tufail said. The poetry club has become a space for many individuals to express themselves through the artform. Through poetry, members of the club can share their stories, hardships, triumphs, and experiences.
“Poetry has always been a way for me to heal and resist,” Tufail explained. “It is deeply an intergenerational manifestation of truth telling for me.” As a second-generation Canadian Muslim settler, Tufail said that “to be the generation of dispossessed, displaced, and racialized within the Canadian context post 9/11 is symbolic.” She describes being “in a place of possibility and oppression simultaneously” as a result of Islamophobia and systemic racism. Tufail refers to poetry as “an art form of resistance through [her] body and her voice.
“It is deeply an intergenerational manifestation of truth telling for me. The previous generations of women in my family had their voices silenced or ignored but the women further back had been louder.”
One of the most impactful moments she’s had with SFU Slam Poetry was when one of the performers expressed to her that she no longer suffers panic attacks when performing. Tufail said this experience solidified to her that “creating this type of space does bring out the power in people who may have been shut down throughout her lives.”
This year’s TEDxSFU conference will be held on Saturday, November 11, 2023 at The Centre for Performing Arts in Downtown Vancouver. Tickets will go on sale in August.
Anyone can attend or perform at a poetry slam, held on Burnaby campus. The next slam takes place on July 27. Visit SFU Slam Poetry on Instagram @sfuslampoetry to learn more about becoming a club member, and events.
