USE YOUR WORDS
interactive experiential game
2025
USE YOUR WORDS is a is an interactive activist art piece in the form of a fun game.
With the idea that free speech and the first amendment should not be taken for granted, the game uses specific words to keep them, and the concepts they represent, in our consciousness as administrative authorities try to suppress, remove or censor them. The game play also promotes creativity, expression and discussion among the players.
Each game consists of four timed rounds in which one of the players acts as the judge.and randomly chooses a title prompt card. Then, the rest of the players, either individually or in up to four teams, have a minute to make poems by arranging the five cards that they've been randomly dealt (each having two words) to make the poem they think best fits the title. There are no right or wrong answers, so the judge gets to use their own criteria and discretion to decide who succeeded and award points accordingly. After each round, players get five new cards and another title prompt is chosen by the judge. The player or team with the most points after the four rounds wins and the chance to be judge rotates to another player for the next game.
The words on the poem cards are sourced from recent government documents that listed hundreds of words for federal agencies to limit or avoid. The titles used for the prompts come from the American Library Association’s list of the thousands of books that have been banned and challenged since 2000.
As an artist, I believe in the profound power of language to shape both our perception of the world and the way we engage with it. The words we use — and the words we are told not to use — carry weight far beyond their mere definitions; they shape narratives, influence policy, and, ultimately, define the contours of our public and private lives. In this project, I explore the merit of making poems from words that have been specifically discouraged by the federal government from use by its agencies.
The government’s list of banned words — words like “science-based,” “diversity,” and “evidence-based” — reveals much about the political climate and the tension between language and control. These words, often seen as markers of inclusivity, evidence, and progress, have been excised not for their lack of meaning but for their potential to challenge dominant discourses or to advocate for marginalized groups.
Incorporating these words into poetry allows for a reclaiming of language that might otherwise be stifled or suppressed. Poetry, with its inherent elasticity and power to evoke emotion, becomes a space to re-contextualize and breathe new life into these terms. It invites us to reconsider their significance and to resist efforts to sanitize language for political or ideological purposes.
By using these discouraged words, I seek to challenge the silence that often surrounds them, to call attention to the undercurrents of fear, suppression, and conformity that these words represent. My work aims to highlight the radical potential of language: not as a passive tool, but as a dynamic force capable of disrupting norms, reshaping discourse, and inspiring action.
This project is not just about words; it is about what they represent. It is about the boundaries we draw with our language and the ways in which art, through its subversive potential, can defy and dismantle those boundaries. In a world where words are weaponized, I believe there is merit in choosing to speak the words that are meant to be silenced, allowing them to reclaim their rightful place in our collective consciousness.