With a bang rather than a whimper, Elise Pallagi presented her art to Sakewew students last week.
Pallagi is a spoken word poet who grew up in North Battleford. Pallagi gave a performance at Sakewew, which consisted of personal stories and discussion interspersed with poems delivered in a slam style.
Growing up and going to school in North Battleford, Pallagi said, was rough. She was bullied and didn’t fit in. Themes explored in the poems included bullying and redemption. Pallagi said she remembered the events at Columbine, and drew parallels between the 1999 shooting and the recent school shootings in Florida.
Pallagi said attending the University of Saskatchewan was a liberating experience, as was performing at Lydia’s, a Saskatoon bar, and getting involved with the city’s LGBT community.
Pallagi is transgender and also spoke of the difficulties of transitioning, especially given what the medical establishment considers normal makes one jump through a number of hoops.
Pallagi said she would have liked to go to Sakewew if the school existed at the time.
“I would have loved to have gone to a high school like this,” Pallagi said. “It would’ve been nice to actually find some people in the community as opposed to feeling isolated. That was the biggest problem growing up, and feeling like I couldn’t express who I was, I couldn’t be myself, I had to conform or get beaten up.”
GSAs, Pallagi said, are very important for students.
“For students who are queer or visibly gender-nonconforming, [GSAs] are a place where they find people like themselves and build solidarity and community. That didn’t exist in the nineties.”
During the performance, Pallagi and teacher Reid Stewart encouraged interaction from students and the audience.
One woman asked Pallagi about spirituality, and the importance of spirituality to many First Nations people.
“I love you,” the woman said. “You’re beautiful.”
