Consent and masculinity: A relevant conversation with spoken word poet "Guante"

On February 27, 2020, students gathered in the Nursing Center on campus to hear spoken word poet Kyle “Guante” Tran Myhre perform some poems and host a discussion about important issues in today’s society, including masculinity and consent.

Originally from Onalaska, Tran Myhre stated that he was glad to be back in the area to perform for students. He explained that he currently resides in Minneapolis where he is a poet as well as an educator and activist. He teaches workshops on issues such as healthy and toxic masculinity, relationship violence, and consent.

To begin the presentation, Tran Myhre recited a poem, and then had those in attendance analyze it to consider aspects such as context, form, delivery, and content to see how those factors contributed to starting important conversations. He continually said that one of the most important parts of poetry is that “it can be a jumping off point to talk about some really hard topics that people don’t know how to start discussing.”

He then went into possible ways to connect with an audience for those more interested in the performance aspect of what he does, “In a poem, the more ground we try to cover, the bigger topic we try to talk about, the less deep we get with it. Often the things I want to write about in poems are really big. It’s love, and family, and war, and oppression, and masculinity.” He urges that it is beneficial to zoom in on tiny moments and let the significance of that moment and the details of that convey the larger message.

Tran Myhre continues this point by applying the same concept to advocacy and activism work, “To take these big issues that are important to us and make them small enough where we can exert power over them and really do something about them is so important.”

One poem, titled “Action,” addresses being a bystander in a potentially abusive dating situation, and not calling someone out about concerns that could potentially prevent the issue.

“I think oftentimes bystander intervention is framed as just an in the moment thing, and that’s really important. When we see harmful stuff happening, we have to figure out how to do something, but I also think bystander intervention is a deeper topic. It’s about how we not just disrupt the bad thing when it happens, but how we create a campus or community culture in which it isn’t happening in the first place. Are we having these conversations preemptively and proactively?”

Tran Myhre encouraged students to look into spoken word more if they were interested and to become involved in causes that they are passionate about. He urged people to not shy away from difficult topics or conversations because those are important for creating a better world and society of equality and love.