No one is prepared when KrisDeLaRash steps up to the mic, and by the time the room has quieted and eyes are turned forward, the young poet is three verses in and you are wishing she would rewind for you. However, for the next 20 minutes, this 23-year-old South Side native takes the audience with her on a fast-paced and an excruciatingly real journey through her life.
KrisDeLaRash, whose name offstage is Kristen Beauford, is a rising luminary in the Chicago slam-poetry scene. She is also a queer activist, musician and parent. Beauford's poetry is intensely political, but she avoids the soapbox, opting for personal anecdotes over a battle cry.
"I talk about love, and love is universal," she said. "I want people to think when they walk away from my performances… You don't have to come to the same conclusions as me, but if it has you bumping up against what you know, I think I have accomplished what I set out to do.'"
Beauford has been singing and writing poems since she was a kid growing up in Wrightwood. She graduated from the Franklin Fine Arts Center in Old Town, and just finished a degree in Media Studies from DePaul University. Throughout college, KrisDeLaRash took the stage alongside some of the biggest performers to come out Chicago, which gave birth to slam poetry more than two decades ago.
Her poem "To My Unborn" is the story of a queer woman grappling with how she might raise a child in a homophobic world, while "Her Hands" is a nostalgic tribute to a grandmother whose garden was a "south side backyard paradise."Beauford's best-known poem, "Edict" digs into the legacies of injustice in the U.S.
KrisDeLaRash may be a stage persona, but Beauford said, she is pretty close to the real deal. "The stage persona is really just a trick for getting people prepared for how bold Kristen is as a person," she said.
THE STATS
No one is prepared when KrisDeLaRash steps up to the mic, and by the time the room has quieted and eyes are turned forward, the young poet is three verses in and you are wishing she would rewind for you. However, for the next 20 minutes, this 23-year-old South Side native takes the audience with her on a fast-paced and an excruciatingly real journey through her life.
KrisDeLaRash, whose name offstage is Kristen Beauford, is a rising luminary in the Chicago slam-poetry scene. She is also a queer activist, musician and parent. Beauford's poetry is intensely political, but she avoids the soapbox, opting for personal anecdotes over a battle cry.
"I talk about love, and love is universal," she said. "I want people to think when they walk away from my performances… You don't have to come to the same conclusions as me, but if it has you bumping up against what you know, I think I have accomplished what I set out to do.'"
Beauford has been singing and writing poems since she was a kid growing up in Wrightwood. She graduated from the Franklin Fine Arts Center in Old Town, and just finished a degree in Media Studies from DePaul University. Throughout college, KrisDeLaRash took the stage alongside some of the biggest performers to come out Chicago, which gave birth to slam poetry more than two decades ago.
Her poem "To My Unborn" is the story of a queer woman grappling with how she might raise a child in a homophobic world, while "Her Hands" is a nostalgic tribute to a grandmother whose garden was a "south side backyard paradise."Beauford's best-known poem, "Edict" digs into the legacies of injustice in the U.S.
KrisDeLaRash may be a stage persona, but Beauford said, she is pretty close to the real deal. "The stage persona is really just a trick for getting people prepared for how bold Kristen is as a person," she said.
Photos by Kate Sosin and Christopher Free
