19-year-old poet deconstructs personal struggle to the racial term ”oreo“ in spoken word project

Ithaca College sophomore Ahshar Williams’ personal essay poetry album, ‘OREO’ is a deconstruction of the racial “slur“ of the same name, used to describe black people who ”act white“. A collection of spoken word pieces about the perspective of a black man in 21st century America, each piece is performed over black jazz and blues standards, like Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’, juxtaposing the pain of racism in Black history with contemporary racism to look at the places where it all feels the same. Very cool project, check it out, down below.

By Erin White*, AFROPUNK contrbutor