“Resurrected In Poetry”: Luka Lesson

Australian 2011 Poetry Slam Champion and full-time independent poet Luka Lesson delivered four pieces of unique slam poetry to a middle school and high school audience in the theatre on January 6 and 7, 2019.

During the Monday performance, he performed four poems in slam poetry format: Yiayia, Antidote, Athena, and May Your Pen Grace The Page. In the short amount of time that he took the stage, Luka expressed his Greek heritage and established his political stance through his educational story-telling poems, including the 2016 YouTube hit “Antidote”. During the Q&A intervals between his performance, he talked about making an impact on the world and other people through creative freedom and the concept of edutainment.

So, who is Luka Lesson?

To begin with, Luka sparked a passion for mainly hip-hop and rap. Later on, he watched YouTube videos on slam poetry, a type of performance poetry, and has been practicing and performing slam poetry ever since.

His day-to-day basis varies depending on the workshops or events in his schedule, whether it is high school or college workshops or a longterm project. Recently, he has been working with the Queensland Sydney Orchestra to create a new piece called the Odysseus, which is a retelling of the Odyssey in hip-hop and spoken word. In this piece, Luka plays both Odysseus and the author Homer. The story is mostly a flashback about the story of the Odyssey, but is retold it in a way where Luka is “making parallels between the modern world and the ancient world.” Nonetheless, Luka spends two to four hours every day writing poetry; he also checks his emails, continues to learn about writing, and reads as much as possible.

Throughout workshops with the AISG students, Luka consistently mentioned that his poetry is inspired by everything around him, and that seemingly obscene actions can create a poem or story. “For every piece of my poetry, I have had a different [creative writing] process. In general, I would spend three to four days or even two years researching a topic for poems that are more research-based. After that, I start building a framework for the poem. Once the framework is done, I might go back and do some more research. Another process is completely from my own emotion, my own history, and my own story,” said Luka, regarding his poetry-writing process.

In addition, Luka is known for his strong political stance, especially in his poetry. He often conveys important social issues and political ideas through his slam poetry performances. Initially, his political stance was established through his experience of racism at a young age in Australia. “[When I was] dealing with racism from a young age and looking at the world in a certain way, you develop compassion for certain people and understanding. Even though I was experiencing racism, other people were experiencing worst forms of prejudice: sexism and racism,” commented Luka on the development of his political stance, which ideally shaped him as a poet.

What is Luka’s message?

One important mantra that Luka stands by is his own measure of success: the impact that his poetry has on other people. “I think it’s disappointing that people only have one measure of success (money). You may be sacrificing your emotional wellbeing, spiritual wellbeing, family wellbeing, other dreams that you have that you want to achieve, helping other people, getting a story into the world, reading other people’s stories, the ability to listen to people properly, and the ability to stick by your word. All these skills can be developed as well as reach your financial goal, but most people throw them to the side because money is number one. I know my poetry has helped people and literally stopped people from suiciding. I know some of my performances have sparked communities to start their own poetry communities. To be able to say that my work has impacted Australian culture to a certain extent, then that’s huge for me.” Throughout his 14 years of workshopping at universities and high schools, he has continuously stressed the importance of making an impact on the community or the world instead of focusing on financial gains.

When discussing his advice to poetry-lovers or aspiring poets, he makes his message loud and clear. “Write about the elephant in the room. Write about the political things that everyone is avoiding. Write about the prejudice you or someone else experienced. Meet with people that deserve their voices to be amplified and help them to write their own poems as well. Poets live in this liminal space where society’s got a blind spot. We walk into it, name it, and open it up [for the issue to be heard and understood].”

On the other hand, he wants his poetry to be aware of the communities or individuals that are affected by a certain social issue. “It’s not really my job to talk about other people’s issues. I would be a better ally if I was helping indigenous poets amplify their own stories. So, [I can] give them the tools to tell their own stories. They do have a voice, an opinion, and a story; they just don’t necessarily have the skill, equipment, or the platform. Being a voice for the voiceless is a bit egotistical. That helps me decide what I want to write about for global issues. By talking about this issue, I’m bringing this attention to this issue. I have to consider if I’m taking up space that’s not mine to take. How am I doing it in a responsible, respectful, and responsive way about the community that I’m talking about? Do I know anyone in that community; if so, can I ask permission and then make a decision about whether I should write about that poem or not?”

Lastly, Luka states that he wants to achieve two important things with his slam poetry: impact and articulation. While he has seen the impact of his poetry (“I have a not so well-known poem named Feathers that I have a recording of online. It’s a letter to my unborn son. I had a lot of dads come to me about that one”), he still aims to better articulate his thoughts and ideas into words on paper.