Poet speaks to UTD

Spoken word phenom enthralls Comets with poems about mental health, self-care

In an honest, vulnerable and captivating virtual performance, Sabrina Benaim, one of the most viewed spoken word poets of all time, shared her poetry and heart with the UTD community at a virtual poetry slam hosted by SUAAB.

On Feb. 3, 34-year-old Benaim from Toronto shared poems about love, depression and everything in-between, warming the audience during the winter storm with her relatable and touching stories. As a poet and performer, she aims to break down the stigma surrounding mental health by sharing her own experiences. Especially during the pandemic when people are faced with isolation, her poetry acts as a source of comfort for many.

With almost ten million views online, Benaim’s most well-known poem is “Explaining My Depression to My Mother,” through which the poet expresses (unsurprisingly) her frustration of not being able to explain her depression to her mother.

The UTD community was able to watch Benaim perform this iconic poem virtually, which also served as a gateway for her to speak about her thoughts on mental health.

“When ‘Explaining My Depression to My Mother’ first went viral, and then because of the attention I garnered from that poem, I got so many DMs at the beginning that were like ‘you should try Jesus! You should try working out more! You should try eating this, like, this will fix you!’” said Benaim. “We don’t necessarily put the stigma [for mental health] beside unsolicited advice, but truly, you know there’s a stigma around [mental health] when you tell somebody that you have depression and their first reaction is to try and fix you.”

Her conversation on mental health continued through her poem, “The Lone- liest Sweet Potato,” where Benaim explained how she went to the grocery store as a way to cope with loneliness; being in an open space surrounded by strangers strangely made her feel slightly better. Through personal anecdotes such as this one, Benaim genuinely engaged with the audience by sharing poems that struck a chord within every viewer.

“Talking about your own mental illness with other people -- that’s an experience I’ve had within my own family,” said Bronwen Olson, a freshman physics major. “I know how hard it is to get other people to understand what’s going on in your head and how important it is to be able to communicate about things like mental health and how that’s all part of recovery. For me, that’s one of the most profound things that Sabrina Benaim