Last weekend, students took to the stage for Gender Experiences, Monologues, & Stories (GEMS), featuring over 30 spoken word and dance pieces.
Hosted by the Gender Equity Center in Spanos Theatre, the student-run performance centered around gender expression, ranging from the struggles and joys of being transgender to experiencing queer love or sexual assault.
Now in its ninth year, GEMS — formerly known as Original Womxn’s Narratives — changed its name this year to de-center cisgender women and ensure all people on the gender spectrum feel comfortable, according to Nabila Wildman, GEMS director and environmental earth and soil sciences senior.
To further promote a safe space, a Cal Poly Safer representative was present during both shows to support audience members who may have been affected by the sensitive content.
Wildman said that the year-long preparation process required the monologue authors, actors and dancers to put a lot of trust in each other as well as Wildman.
“It’s not easy work — and the fact that they show up and do what they do every week and commit these triggering words to their memory is a really big deal,” Wildman said about the cast. “They’re doing it for the community and for themselves.”
The positive energy from the cast encouraged business administration sophomore Tien Nguyen to step out of their comfort zone to perform “Bandages,” a spoken word piece. Nguyen ended the piece by removing their bra on stage — a symbolic moment of empowerment that demonstrated Nguyen’s tested relationship with the undergarment.
Nguyen, a returning cast member, further contributed with performances “Sewn in Scars,” “Him Again” and “To My Love.”
“One of my lines is, ‘You muster up thank yous in car rides,’” Nguyen said, describing “Sewn in Scars,” which is based on their relationship with their mother. “The stanzas alternate between my hardships with her, but also understanding that I’m grateful for her as well.”
GEMS created a space that gave Nguyen scheduled time to reflect on their queerness, in an almost “English class discussion environment,” Nguyen said. Queer students could build off of each other in discussion and create a supportive network of vulnerability, they explained.
Nguyen believes that presenting GEMS to the Cal Poly community was an important display of queer existence on campus.
“I think it’s important to know that Cal Poly has an open space for a community like this and for these voices to be heard,” Nguyen said. “It’s one of the reasons I’m so proud of Cal Poly: the communities hidden inside.”
The show gave biology senior Sema Lew, who choreographed two pieces as the GEMS dance director, a chance to reconcile her different identities.
“I think that, for me at least, dance and queerness haven’t always been super compatible,” Lew said. “Having this is really awesome because it totally celebrates both of those aspects of who I am in a combined space.”
Architecture senior Arielle Rose-Finn attended the Saturday show and expressed how powerful the pieces were to her.
“I think it’s incredibly valuable to be able to see performances that aren’t just pure entertainment,” Rose-Finn said. “To be able to hear the experiences of so many different types of people is incredibly valuable and something I think more people should be involved with.”
Zines, or free books filled with art and writing, will be printed and released in a few weeks, Wildman said. They will contain visual artwork and poetry not included at the show and will be available at the Gender Equity Center in the University Union.
Wildman hopes GEMS provided catharsis to audience members, queer or not, a sense of healing. The show shared personal experiences, like sexual abuse and queer heartbreak, that cast members have known their whole lives and performed to let go of.
