F-Word Live! Poetry Slam started as an event by students and for students. Which is why this year’s event will be free to all students.
The event will not only be free for University of Idaho students but Washington State University and even 18 years or older Moscow High School students. If not, the high school students will need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian, said Bekah MillerMacPhee, director of the Office of Violence Against Women Project and coordinator of F-Word Live!.
F-Word Live! has always been important to MillerMacPhee, as a former UI student she was a part of a club called the Feminist Led Activist Movement to Empower (FLAME) which started F-Word Live! in 2006.
“We (FLAME) felt like there needed to be a larger space created to invite people within the community and the campus to come and enjoy this space dedicated to feminism,” MillerMacPhee said. “So, we came up with F-Word Live!.”
While the event today is not hosted by a student group but instead the Women’s Center, MillerMacPhee said she understands why students aren’t able to host the whole event anymore.
“It’s not like we’re wishing the students would pick it back up and do it — I mean if they wanted to, that’d be great — but we also understand that a lot of work and students are busier than they were in 2006,” MillerMacPhee said. “But we try to get them as involved as we can because this event is really, it was started by students, it’s about students, it’s meant to provide a space to students.
Autumn Barnhill, a UI third-year student, is one of the students participating in F-Word Live! this year. Barnhill has attended every F-Word Live! since being in school but began preforming last year.
Barnhill’s first experience at F-Word Live! left them in tears. Barnhill said they were so “affected by everything I was hearing.” When it came to the more challenging topics of abuse, Barnhill said they see the importance of talking about these issues.
“Even though I haven’t maybe experienced the worst thing out there, I can use my voice as a white person to maybe talk about things that I’ve experienced that other people don’t have the opportunity or the means or the platform to talk about,” Barnhill said.
A lot of the effect Barnhill said they have had has comes from the Women’s Center.
When Barnhill walked into the Women’s Center as a first-year student, as work study, they found their place on campus. And has always felt the Women’s Center was there for them.
“I’ve been affected so much by the Women’s Center and I’ve only been here for three years — and I’m like a baby,” Barnhill said. “Last year even I was in here like every day just like spending hours in here, because it’s a comfortable space and like you know you’re going to be safe.”
And for MillerMacPhee, the Women’s Center has always been a space for her, not only as a student but now. MillerMacPhee said she has participated in every F-Word Live! either as a student, as an advocate for Alternatives to Violence on the Palouse and then as a staff member of the Women’s Center.
Before MillerMacPhee joined the Women’s Center, she was an advocate for Alternatives to Violence on the Palouse which is a resource offered at F-Word Live! as some of the content may be triggering for viewers.
While MillerMacPhee has loved her time at UI, but this will be her last F-Word Live! as staff. She will be leaving UI at the end of this week for a new position at WSU working with health promotion.
“It’s been really great to be able to work here for five and a half years and try to create that same space for students now so — it feels a little bit like leaving home,” MillerMacPhee said.
But don’t worry F-Word Live! will still continue on after MillerMacPhee leaves, she said.
F-Word Live! will be at 7 p.m. tonight at the Bruce M. Pitman Center in the Vandal Ballroom and is free to all students and $5 for non-students.
Alex Brizee can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @alex_brizee