Dylan Garity - Rigged Game

Dylan Garity, performing at NPS 2013 in Boston, MA.

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We seek to showcase the power and diversity of voices in our community. By encouraging and broadcasting the best and brightest performance poets of today, we hope to broaden poetry's audience, to expand its reach and develop a greater level of cultural appreciation for the art form.

[mar-wrio]

"improving a school by picking its pocket is like tuning a guitar by ripping out its strings" *applaud*

[horsecrazy]

The winners of a rigged game should not get to write the rules

[micheleherrera]

"the winners of a rigged game should not get to write the rules" that line really hits home.

[warumsiehtmanjetztdenalias]

"these kids are good organs in a sick body"

[harypotter]

I started crying before this got half-way through. This poem is so heartwrenchingly true and beautiful. Amazing work.

[asseater]

Damn, this was the best slam poem about education ive ever seen. Fuck the us education system

[taylorgonzalez]

I come back to this so often my AP Lang teacher showed us this in early 2014 when we got back from winter break and now I’m in my second year of law school and I still think about this often.

[RomeLoganMusic]

"...like trying to sing with the conductor's fist jammed down your throat" his imagery is so vivid. Love it!

[Gcat]

I have watched this multiple times and every single rewatch still gives me the chills. This is utterly amazing. You are an inspiration don't ever stop performing. 

[rennytiara]

"As their lungs fill with smoke telling them, it is their fault they can't find a way out'

[enrockburn]

Every day when I was five, my older sister would play teacher.
Her students were me, my stuffed rabbit and an American girl doll,
She’d line us up at the end of the bed and teach us whatever she’d learned in school that day.

Now, she teaches ESL at an elementary school in Boston
and every week she tells me stories about her students.
Ana does not know how to read in Spanish, much less English
but she still wants to be a writer when she grows up.
Juan chooses to stay inside and study at recess so that one day he’ll be able to teach his own brother.

These kids are good organs in a sick body.
In 2001, No Child Left Behind
gutted bilingual education.
Students who have been in the country for one year
are now expected to perform at grade level
on standardized English tests.
My sister is not allowed to instruct them in Spanish.
If the kids don’t jump high enough, the school loses money
Improving a school by picking its pockets
is like tuning a guitar by ripping off the strings.

Learning to read in a new language
before you can even read in your own
is like learning to walk while a pit bull is chasing you.
Like learning to sing with the conductor’s fist down your throat

This year, for my sister’s birthday,
I bought books for her students.
A poem on one page in Spanish, the next in English.
She is not allowed to help them read the first.
Their heritage is a banned book

Learning to read in a new language
when you can’t even read in your own
is like trying to heal a burn victim by drowning them.
We are telling these children
who have spent their whole lives in the deep end
that they’ll learn how to swim if they just float out a little farther.

In the 1980s, American slaughterhouses
began building corrals in curves,
so no animals could see the blood at the end of the track.
This is how we kept them moving forward.
In 2001, we began building the hallways of our schools in curves.
This is how we keep them moving forward.

You never learn, you fail the test
You never learn you fail the test
You never learn, you drop out.

I know, I am lucky enough to be one of the winners of this game
I was handed a head start
and a rulebook in my own tongue

but the winners of a rigged game
should not get to write the rules.

On the television,
some senator preaches that throwing money
at an “urban school” is like feeding caviar to your dog.
They just won’t know how to appreciate it
After all, if these parents can’t take care
of their own children, why should we?

Well tell that to Ana
who has my sister translate newsletters aloud to her father
because he, too, was never taught how to read

Tell that to Juan
whose mother and baby sister are still in Guatemala
whose father works three jobs

My sister tells me school is the most stable place in these kids’ lives.
She has been a teacher since she was smaller than they are.
but since when does being a teacher mean having to swear not to help?
Since when does being a teacher mean having your hands tied
as the schoolhouse burns to the ground?
We are leading these children along a track built in circles
as their lungs fill with smoke
telling them it is their fault
they can’t find a way out.

[Jay_Cross]

I don't understand what people are disliking or disagreeing about this video he makes sense and he wasn't rude.

[DianaPham]

My parents were immigrants from France and Vietnam, with their common language being French, meaning neither my sister nor I spoke a wick of English when we first went to school. I started school just after no child left behind was passed, and I think I got lucky because we don't have to take standardized test till 2nd or 3rd grade, giving me time to learn. About 6 years ago when I was in 8th grade, a boy who's family had just immigrated from Vietnam right around the time when we had to take the state wide standard test. He told me they were only allowed a pathetic Vietnamese to English dictionary and had to look up every. Single. Word. within a 90 minute time frame and answer all of the questions. Like Dylan Garity said, the winners of a rigged game shouldn't be allowed to write the rules. No child left behind, my ass. Most of them are hanging on by the tips of their fingers. Standardized test are no measure of intelligence or knowledge and should not be used for that purpose. The US school system may not be as bad as it could be, but for a country that prides itself in being progressive and a 'superpower, ' one would expect better.

[josette]

This poem really hits home with me because I came to the US before I could write. I was put in a preschool that had no English speaking teachers available to help me and I was alone. I was ignored and unable to be understood or understand. I would come home angry that the kids here didn't make sense that they didn't know how to talk. This was paired with a feeling of inadequacy that still presents itself when I can't spell a word correctly. I was held back a year because of language complications when native English speakers got praised for almost getting the word right I was handled gingerly. I learned and now I also write poetry but it wasn't without struggle none of my native English speaking friends could comprehend.

[Cutegirl]

wow is all i can say. i love this beyond words.

[luzny]

This poem was absolutely perfect.
As a student who grew up that way and a teacher who has too many of these students, I cannot thank Dylan enough for bringing this topic to people's attention.
Perfectly written and amazingly performed.

[rkgk]

I saw someone do this poem in their poetry program at the poetry finals of NFA's this year.

It was very hard to watch, it was so sad. His frustration looked so genuine. Wonderful poem and wonderful performance I saw... 

[CrolSrnit]

Chiiills... I love Dylan, each one of his poems give me a new different sensation, congratulations for your excellence.

[aholt]

THIS is how those of us who were randomly born into a privilege we had no choice but to grow up in should be using that privilege. Privilege should be used to help those who weren't as luck in the heartless lottery that if life.

[lunarlunna]

every year, everyday, every second this gets more and more accurate