Recording: Aisha Sasha John

Artist: Aisha Sasha John

Poems: selections from I have to live

Recorded at The Garrison (Venus Fest Winter Solstice Celebration), December 21, 2017.

Aisha Sasha John - selections from I have to live

Jennifer Castle's solstice celebration, long a seasonal highlight, was co-presented this time 'round as part of Venus Fest's monthly concert series. Seizing the opportunity to present some intersectional/multidisciplinary vibes, this spoken word set from local poet Aisha Sasha John saw her read her work with dry humour concealing some barbed hooks. Like in Jennifer Castle's work, there was a porous boundary between chill-on-the-couch bon mots and cut-to-the-core existential quandaries. Leading with some new work in raw form (some of the lines ripped straight from her tumblr musings), she then read from last year's I have to live, considering how identity shifts from the ideal (and the idealized) with every real-world fact and compromise.