“Unforgettable”: The Poetics of Resistance and the Construction of Immigrant Identities in Slam Poetry

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the poem “Unforgettable” by Pages Mattam, G. Yamazawa and Elizabeth Acevedo and how it is a tool of expression of the authors’ identities. Slam poetry took advantage of its growing popularity to open the door of discussion to many socio-political issues (Sommers-Willett “Slam Poetry and the Cultural Politics of Performing Identity” 51). Identity, as argued by Muhammad and Gonzalez (2016) is diverse and complex, molded by sociocultural practices as much as self-expression and the literacy practices developed by the authors. Since slam poetry “[...] begs to be regarded not only as a performance poetry movement but also [...] as a social movement” (Sommers-Willet “The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry” 7), “Unforgettable” poses as an example of two different resistance movements: one in which the authors resist the stereotyped view that the culture around them imposes on their origins and questions their belonging to culturally diverse groups, and another in which the authors resist the assimilation of cultural roots by the United States’ own culture and way of life. As such, the aim of the analysis is to identify how cultural identification processes of immigration and resistance are performed through slam poetry.