“Have you ever made a way out of no way? Ever had to make something out of nothing when nothing seems possible ever? Nothing get easier ever? Have you ever wondered what its like to be vulnerable?”
“My name is Kyd Kane and my piece “LEMON-AID” it speaks to all of the substandard and insufficient things that we get handed in this life, and then the Band-Aids that are also created to fix, Ill put those in quotations, to fix the lemon systems.”
In her poem, Kane uses the metaphor of lemons to refer to the racism experienced by African Americans in Grand Rapids and in the United States.
“Through this work I want to say: “, I see you continuing to be handed lemons and you are trying to make something out of it but there is so much destruction that you can’t make that lemonade that they expect you to make, but you still manage to make something out of nothing. You still manage to make something sweet.”
Using her poem Lemonaid, the Grand Rapidian has a created a poetic installation at Site Lab, an art prize venue located on Madison Avenue and Hall street, the same area her family moved to back in the 1940s.
“It’s a performance poetry piece with visual video work and also a live performance that accompanies it, and also there is text work that you can view throughout the entire space.”
With less than a week remaining of Art Prize, Kane is looking forward to providing a space for audience members to learn, and unpack their own privilege.
“Those Lemonaid cops they still get paid, and those paid Lemonaid cops kill but we still, we still manage to pay those Lemonaid bills.”
Michelle Jokisch Polo, for WGVU News.
