S1 E8 Pamela Sneed: The Poet Stands Up

Patricia Silva talks with Pamela Sneed, an American poet, performance artist, actress, activist, and teacher. When i first read Pamela Sneed’s Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery, my mind was still reeling from the graphic imagery of the Rodney King beating by police. Years later, Pamela published Kong, and by the time of our interview in 2016, America is again facing the consequences of its embedded racism. Racism is not just an exclusive US problem, but the relationship to racism here is very specific. Swirling in the media imagery at the time of our interview in July, was a story about a 4-year-old who fell into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo, and whose parents were inevitably met with racist comments. Once again the image of a black or brown body harks back to an othering shaped by the public dialogue of another era: that of an undomesticated animal. I spoke with Pamela about these two books, her trips to Western Africa in the 90s, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, and other influential artists and moments that shaped Pamela’s foundation as poet and performer.