Caroline Rothstein
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Caroline Rothstein

Chicago, New York, United States | SELF

Chicago, New York, United States | SELF
Solo Spoken Word Comedy

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"Alumna's Poem Goes Viral - With Help from Lady Gaga"

by Molly Petrilla

Caroline Rothstein C’06, the same Caroline Rothstein for whom an annual poetry program at the Kelly Writers House is named, created a video that recently caught Lady Gaga’s attention — and, by extension, the attention of Gaga’s 53 million Facebook fans and 30 million Twitter followers.

Rothstein is a writer and performer who specializes in spoken-word poetry. (Recent grads may have seen her on stage with The Excelano Project, which she directed her junior and senior years at Penn.) She has performed her oral poetry at colleges, schools and other venues around the country, and is also a longtime eating-disorder recovery activist who hosts a Body Empowerment series on YouTube.

Her spoken-word and eating-disorder activism often overlap, as they did with the video Gaga discovered and shared with fans. “Fat”’s powerful message begins immediately, surging from its first three lines: “I am not fat. It took me 22 years to purge words onto a page the same way I purged my body into stomach ulcers, popped eye blood vessels and missing tooth enamel. Twenty-two years to tell the tale of my bulimic, anorexic, and disordered-eating hell.”

Rothstein spoke with us about writing “Fat” as a senior at Penn and about the video’s recent spread. She also discussed some of her other work, including an award-winning one-woman play based on her own experience with and recovery from an eating disorder.

Lady Gaga revealed her own eating-disorder struggles shortly before sharing your video. Do you have any idea how she found “Fat”?

[Last month,] a friend posted an article on my Facebook wall about how Lady Gaga had come out saying she has a history of an eating disorder and then announced, ‘Let’s start a Body Revolution; everyone share your story.’ I went to [Gaga's website] littlemonsters.com, which I had never heard of before that evening, to see what was going on. By the minute, thousands of people were posting their stories and saying things like, ‘I had anorexia.’ ‘I had bulimia.’ ‘I cut myself.’ ‘This is a picture of my stomach.’ It was so powerful and amazing and I thought, You know what? I’m going to join in. So I posted a link to the video of my poem “Fat” and in the caption I wrote, ‘I’m eight years recovered from a decade-long eating disorder and really grateful to Lady Gaga for being so brave and spearheading this movement.’

I went to sleep. I figured maybe a few fans would see it. Then the next day, I saw all these tweets from Lady Gaga fans saying, ‘We love you. The whole world knows who you are.’ I went and checked [Gaga’s] Twitter page and sure enough, she had tweeted the link. The part I know is that I posted it; the speculation is how, amidst the thousands and thousands of posts, she or whomever came across mine. That’s the part I don’t know.

What sort of response did you experience from people discovering your video?

It’s been amazing. I have all these new fans and followers and supporters, and on [littlemonsters.com] I received hundreds and hundreds of incredible comments. I am so moved and grateful…. I feel awkward just listing all the accolades I was getting, [but] more importantly, a lot of people shared their stories, too, and that’s why I do what I do. That’s why my art is personal and political and that’s why I believe the personal is political. My hope is that we all eliminate the shame surrounding whatever our stories are so that in our honesty we heal ourselves and we heal each other.

“Fat” is such a compelling piece. Can you tell me about the process and experience of writing it?

I wrote it at Penn when I was a second-semester senior. I was 22 years old at the time. While I had been a writer and performer my whole life and I had been publicly speaking about my experience for years, it was so hard to articulate it succinctly. At that point, I was about a year and a half into recovery and I was finally able to concisely articulate my experience in a way that felt manageable, authentic and honest to the severity of the illness and also to the reality of recovery being possible.

[The piece] went through a lot of edits. I vacillated between words and lines for weeks, I remember. I can picture myself actually sitting in Qdoba at the counter window looking out onto Superblock and editing word by word. I wanted it to be accessible, and that’s what this whole Lady Gaga thing has proven to me — that it is the accessible piece I hoped it would be.

At what point did you realize how powerful spoken-word poetry could be for you?

I didn’t know spoken-word existed until I was at Penn. Carlos Andres Gomez had just started The Excelano Project and I saw him perform. I was a freshman and I thought, ‘Now there’s an art form that exists where I can be a writer, performer and activist all at once instead of separately.’ My whole life I’d been a theater kid and a poet and now I had a way to do it all at once. I tried out for Excelano, made it and I was in - Penn Gazette


"Alumna's Poem Goes Viral - With Help from Lady Gaga"

by Molly Petrilla

Caroline Rothstein C’06, the same Caroline Rothstein for whom an annual poetry program at the Kelly Writers House is named, created a video that recently caught Lady Gaga’s attention — and, by extension, the attention of Gaga’s 53 million Facebook fans and 30 million Twitter followers.

Rothstein is a writer and performer who specializes in spoken-word poetry. (Recent grads may have seen her on stage with The Excelano Project, which she directed her junior and senior years at Penn.) She has performed her oral poetry at colleges, schools and other venues around the country, and is also a longtime eating-disorder recovery activist who hosts a Body Empowerment series on YouTube.

Her spoken-word and eating-disorder activism often overlap, as they did with the video Gaga discovered and shared with fans. “Fat”’s powerful message begins immediately, surging from its first three lines: “I am not fat. It took me 22 years to purge words onto a page the same way I purged my body into stomach ulcers, popped eye blood vessels and missing tooth enamel. Twenty-two years to tell the tale of my bulimic, anorexic, and disordered-eating hell.”

Rothstein spoke with us about writing “Fat” as a senior at Penn and about the video’s recent spread. She also discussed some of her other work, including an award-winning one-woman play based on her own experience with and recovery from an eating disorder.

Lady Gaga revealed her own eating-disorder struggles shortly before sharing your video. Do you have any idea how she found “Fat”?

[Last month,] a friend posted an article on my Facebook wall about how Lady Gaga had come out saying she has a history of an eating disorder and then announced, ‘Let’s start a Body Revolution; everyone share your story.’ I went to [Gaga's website] littlemonsters.com, which I had never heard of before that evening, to see what was going on. By the minute, thousands of people were posting their stories and saying things like, ‘I had anorexia.’ ‘I had bulimia.’ ‘I cut myself.’ ‘This is a picture of my stomach.’ It was so powerful and amazing and I thought, You know what? I’m going to join in. So I posted a link to the video of my poem “Fat” and in the caption I wrote, ‘I’m eight years recovered from a decade-long eating disorder and really grateful to Lady Gaga for being so brave and spearheading this movement.’

I went to sleep. I figured maybe a few fans would see it. Then the next day, I saw all these tweets from Lady Gaga fans saying, ‘We love you. The whole world knows who you are.’ I went and checked [Gaga’s] Twitter page and sure enough, she had tweeted the link. The part I know is that I posted it; the speculation is how, amidst the thousands and thousands of posts, she or whomever came across mine. That’s the part I don’t know.

What sort of response did you experience from people discovering your video?

It’s been amazing. I have all these new fans and followers and supporters, and on [littlemonsters.com] I received hundreds and hundreds of incredible comments. I am so moved and grateful…. I feel awkward just listing all the accolades I was getting, [but] more importantly, a lot of people shared their stories, too, and that’s why I do what I do. That’s why my art is personal and political and that’s why I believe the personal is political. My hope is that we all eliminate the shame surrounding whatever our stories are so that in our honesty we heal ourselves and we heal each other.

“Fat” is such a compelling piece. Can you tell me about the process and experience of writing it?

I wrote it at Penn when I was a second-semester senior. I was 22 years old at the time. While I had been a writer and performer my whole life and I had been publicly speaking about my experience for years, it was so hard to articulate it succinctly. At that point, I was about a year and a half into recovery and I was finally able to concisely articulate my experience in a way that felt manageable, authentic and honest to the severity of the illness and also to the reality of recovery being possible.

[The piece] went through a lot of edits. I vacillated between words and lines for weeks, I remember. I can picture myself actually sitting in Qdoba at the counter window looking out onto Superblock and editing word by word. I wanted it to be accessible, and that’s what this whole Lady Gaga thing has proven to me — that it is the accessible piece I hoped it would be.

At what point did you realize how powerful spoken-word poetry could be for you?

I didn’t know spoken-word existed until I was at Penn. Carlos Andres Gomez had just started The Excelano Project and I saw him perform. I was a freshman and I thought, ‘Now there’s an art form that exists where I can be a writer, performer and activist all at once instead of separately.’ My whole life I’d been a theater kid and a poet and now I had a way to do it all at once. I tried out for Excelano, made it and I was in - Penn Gazette


"Caroline Rothstein"

Caroline Rothstein is an incredible person. There’s really no other way of putting it. A New Trier alumna, Rothstein has led an incredibly difficult life, but has come out on top. And on March 20, after being invited back by ELS for a meeting to discuss vulnerability at New Trier, Rothstein shared her incredible story.

Representatives from every major advocacy club conjoined, from the New Trier Republicans to Erika’s Lighthouse, to talk with Rothstein. And talk they did, and piece by piece, Rothstein’s story was shared.

While the meeting was meant to discuss vulnerability, it was quickly clear that everyone there was there for Rothstein, to hear her story and her spoken-word poetry.

We heard about her struggles with anorexia and, more prominently, bulimia. She suffered with them and from junior high through her sophomore year of college. She told us that she had struggled with body image even longer, saying, “I thought that I was fat in kindergarten. I look back at pictures of me, and I can’t even understand what I was thinking.”

She told us about her history of sexual abuse, and how it only worsened her other emotional problems. Yet even as she told us of her trials, she never came off as bitter or angry. She never pressed charges against either of her abusers, and told us that after confronting her first abuser, that “I forgave him, because I can’t even imagine what he must have been going through himself if he had to do that to someone.”

When a fellow member of her graduating class at her private school in Sweden spent an entire reunion taunting her about her weight, she didn’t stay bitter. Instead, she wrote a poem. She thought about how he was from a country under the military occupation of the United States, and how he was most likely just taking his frustrations about it out on her. Forgiveness and understanding, these are a large part of what defined her story.

But mostly, her story was one of triumph. She recovered from bulimia, and made a name for herself in college. She took over her school’s production of “The Vagina Monologues,” a widespread feminist play, and how she turned from a small event to one of the biggest events on campus. She also told how she’s worked hard to get more men involved in feminism, because often times it can feel like it’s anti-men. She organized a male only discussion of date rape, an event so successful and enlightening that she was eventually able to organize a co-ed discussion of date rape, a discussion desperately needed at most, if not all, college campuses.

Still, it wasn’t all just story time with Caroline. The largest emphasis was what we could learn from her experience, both as advocates for others and for ourselves. When asked what she wished more people had done for her, she simply said, “Just talked with me. Listened to me and what I had to say.”

Communication with others was the common theme through it all. She said she was able to recover because she had such an amazing group of people around her. She also said that the only reason she’s been so successful at organizing events and spreading awareness is her communication and networking skills. She branched out, and got to know and befriend so many different people, which made event planning that much easier.

From this, we began to discuss how our groups of friends don’t define us as people. We talked about how all of us fit into many groups, and how just one of those isn’t who we are as people. For example, I clearly write for the school newspaper. However, this doesn’t define me. I’m not just “a school newspaper guy,” but rather a fully fledged person, with many interests and hobbies and a whole life outside of them. However, it often feels like only the most obvious things we present about ourselves is how people know us. We all decided that more people needed to realize this, and each advocacy group agreed that it would be a good idea to pursue. - The New Trier News


"Caroline Rothstein"

Caroline Rothstein is an incredible person. There’s really no other way of putting it. A New Trier alumna, Rothstein has led an incredibly difficult life, but has come out on top. And on March 20, after being invited back by ELS for a meeting to discuss vulnerability at New Trier, Rothstein shared her incredible story.

Representatives from every major advocacy club conjoined, from the New Trier Republicans to Erika’s Lighthouse, to talk with Rothstein. And talk they did, and piece by piece, Rothstein’s story was shared.

While the meeting was meant to discuss vulnerability, it was quickly clear that everyone there was there for Rothstein, to hear her story and her spoken-word poetry.

We heard about her struggles with anorexia and, more prominently, bulimia. She suffered with them and from junior high through her sophomore year of college. She told us that she had struggled with body image even longer, saying, “I thought that I was fat in kindergarten. I look back at pictures of me, and I can’t even understand what I was thinking.”

She told us about her history of sexual abuse, and how it only worsened her other emotional problems. Yet even as she told us of her trials, she never came off as bitter or angry. She never pressed charges against either of her abusers, and told us that after confronting her first abuser, that “I forgave him, because I can’t even imagine what he must have been going through himself if he had to do that to someone.”

When a fellow member of her graduating class at her private school in Sweden spent an entire reunion taunting her about her weight, she didn’t stay bitter. Instead, she wrote a poem. She thought about how he was from a country under the military occupation of the United States, and how he was most likely just taking his frustrations about it out on her. Forgiveness and understanding, these are a large part of what defined her story.

But mostly, her story was one of triumph. She recovered from bulimia, and made a name for herself in college. She took over her school’s production of “The Vagina Monologues,” a widespread feminist play, and how she turned from a small event to one of the biggest events on campus. She also told how she’s worked hard to get more men involved in feminism, because often times it can feel like it’s anti-men. She organized a male only discussion of date rape, an event so successful and enlightening that she was eventually able to organize a co-ed discussion of date rape, a discussion desperately needed at most, if not all, college campuses.

Still, it wasn’t all just story time with Caroline. The largest emphasis was what we could learn from her experience, both as advocates for others and for ourselves. When asked what she wished more people had done for her, she simply said, “Just talked with me. Listened to me and what I had to say.”

Communication with others was the common theme through it all. She said she was able to recover because she had such an amazing group of people around her. She also said that the only reason she’s been so successful at organizing events and spreading awareness is her communication and networking skills. She branched out, and got to know and befriend so many different people, which made event planning that much easier.

From this, we began to discuss how our groups of friends don’t define us as people. We talked about how all of us fit into many groups, and how just one of those isn’t who we are as people. For example, I clearly write for the school newspaper. However, this doesn’t define me. I’m not just “a school newspaper guy,” but rather a fully fledged person, with many interests and hobbies and a whole life outside of them. However, it often feels like only the most obvious things we present about ourselves is how people know us. We all decided that more people needed to realize this, and each advocacy group agreed that it would be a good idea to pursue. - The New Trier News


"Caroline Rothstein Talks "Body Empowerment""

It was a sweltering hot August morning in New York City, and I had just met with Caroline Rothstein on an assignment for I Am That Girl, an organization devoted to promoting authentic confidence in women around the world. I chose to interview Caroline because a friend told me about her courage in advocacy and activism towards body empowerment and sexual abuse awareness. Caroline is a NYC-based spoken word poet and freelance writer. Caroline also has a YouTube series called "Body Empowerment" where she discusses eating disorder recovery and how to maintain a positive body image. I was soon to find out that Caroline is a woman who has changed the lives of many women all over the world, and that she'd impact my life, too.

After a conversation over a cup of coffee, we walked three blocks to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, where Caroline is a regular performer. When she said that she would recite her spoken word poem entitled "Fat," there was no preparation for the piercing words I was about to hear.

"I am not fat. It took me 22 years to purge words onto the page the same way I purged my body into stomach ulcers, popped eye blood vessels and missing tooth enamel. 22 years to tell the tale of my bulimic, anorexic and disordered eating hell."

"...This is a Poem About playing Russian roulette with my esophagus as my gun barrel fingers triggered tragedy down my throat."

[See the full video of 'Fat' embedded at the bottom of the article]

These words hit me like a pile of bricks. The rhythm and conviction with which she relayed her poem was not angry. Instead, it was shockingly powerful, thoughtful and informative. After her two-minute performance, I felt as if I, too, had lived the struggle that she has faced with eating disorders since the age of eleven. She had shown me the rawest version of herself, making me feel that I had known her for years, as opposed to just hours.

I have never seen a woman be so open and readily available to share her personal experiences with the depth of honesty that Caroline did -- and right on the asphault of a busy NYC street, no less! I stood frozen like a deer in headlights, my jaw dropped and amazed by what I had just seen.

I YouTubed Caroline's "Body Empowerment" series and was amazed to find the huge archive of videos of Caroline sitting in front of a camera. The videos are sincere and direct on what she is talking about on that given day, integrity oozed out of them. She speaks about personal experiences that she has had overcoming her disorder, and general ideas like loving your body, just the way it is.

She has reached over 50,000 viewers and has become a valued resource for people all over the world. One viewer commented, "I am currently trying very hard to recover and your videos are helping me a great deal. Your [sic] wonderful."

The "Body Empowerment" series initially started because of work that Caroline did with The National Association of Anorexia, Nervosa and Associate Disorders (ANAD) in 2000. She became a "resource person," a non-professional that people dealing with eating disorders could contact for guidance and help.

Caroline received a call from a young woman in Brooklyn. This woman had called a suicide hotline previously, and got in touch through ANAD's directory. She called Caroline and said, "I need to meet with you. Nobody knows I'm bulimic and it's killing me."

The woman told Caroline that she wanted to be "as confident and recovered" as she was. She also urged Caroline to put her story and advice on YouTube so that she could help other women struggling with body issues around the world.

Following through with the young woman, Caroline felt no fear when putting her message into cyberspace, and instead felt a pressing feeling of responsibility.

It is estimated that eating disorders affect approximately 24 million people in the U.S and 70 million worldwide, although Caroline believes that this number is too low, only accounting for the recorded cases. With so many people struggling, the subject is still very taboo. I know that within my own life, body image issues are seldom discussed with girlfriends who are experiencing problems. Shame, fear and weakness is often attached to ideas of distorted body perceptions. Similarly, Caroline found that when studying at UPENN it was "impossible to get women to talk about eating disorders." Yet through her series, as well as her performances, Caroline is encouraging a discussion, and breaking the taboo.

Caroline's own struggle with eating disorders started at the age of eleven. In 2004, she went into recovery and now, at age 28, she is fully recovered. Another area that Caroline advocates for is sexual abuse and violence awareness. Caroline was molested in high school for a year and a half, and date raped in University.

The fact that Caroline c - The Huffington Post


"Caroline Rothstein Talks "Body Empowerment""

It was a sweltering hot August morning in New York City, and I had just met with Caroline Rothstein on an assignment for I Am That Girl, an organization devoted to promoting authentic confidence in women around the world. I chose to interview Caroline because a friend told me about her courage in advocacy and activism towards body empowerment and sexual abuse awareness. Caroline is a NYC-based spoken word poet and freelance writer. Caroline also has a YouTube series called "Body Empowerment" where she discusses eating disorder recovery and how to maintain a positive body image. I was soon to find out that Caroline is a woman who has changed the lives of many women all over the world, and that she'd impact my life, too.

After a conversation over a cup of coffee, we walked three blocks to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, where Caroline is a regular performer. When she said that she would recite her spoken word poem entitled "Fat," there was no preparation for the piercing words I was about to hear.

"I am not fat. It took me 22 years to purge words onto the page the same way I purged my body into stomach ulcers, popped eye blood vessels and missing tooth enamel. 22 years to tell the tale of my bulimic, anorexic and disordered eating hell."

"...This is a Poem About playing Russian roulette with my esophagus as my gun barrel fingers triggered tragedy down my throat."

[See the full video of 'Fat' embedded at the bottom of the article]

These words hit me like a pile of bricks. The rhythm and conviction with which she relayed her poem was not angry. Instead, it was shockingly powerful, thoughtful and informative. After her two-minute performance, I felt as if I, too, had lived the struggle that she has faced with eating disorders since the age of eleven. She had shown me the rawest version of herself, making me feel that I had known her for years, as opposed to just hours.

I have never seen a woman be so open and readily available to share her personal experiences with the depth of honesty that Caroline did -- and right on the asphault of a busy NYC street, no less! I stood frozen like a deer in headlights, my jaw dropped and amazed by what I had just seen.

I YouTubed Caroline's "Body Empowerment" series and was amazed to find the huge archive of videos of Caroline sitting in front of a camera. The videos are sincere and direct on what she is talking about on that given day, integrity oozed out of them. She speaks about personal experiences that she has had overcoming her disorder, and general ideas like loving your body, just the way it is.

She has reached over 50,000 viewers and has become a valued resource for people all over the world. One viewer commented, "I am currently trying very hard to recover and your videos are helping me a great deal. Your [sic] wonderful."

The "Body Empowerment" series initially started because of work that Caroline did with The National Association of Anorexia, Nervosa and Associate Disorders (ANAD) in 2000. She became a "resource person," a non-professional that people dealing with eating disorders could contact for guidance and help.

Caroline received a call from a young woman in Brooklyn. This woman had called a suicide hotline previously, and got in touch through ANAD's directory. She called Caroline and said, "I need to meet with you. Nobody knows I'm bulimic and it's killing me."

The woman told Caroline that she wanted to be "as confident and recovered" as she was. She also urged Caroline to put her story and advice on YouTube so that she could help other women struggling with body issues around the world.

Following through with the young woman, Caroline felt no fear when putting her message into cyberspace, and instead felt a pressing feeling of responsibility.

It is estimated that eating disorders affect approximately 24 million people in the U.S and 70 million worldwide, although Caroline believes that this number is too low, only accounting for the recorded cases. With so many people struggling, the subject is still very taboo. I know that within my own life, body image issues are seldom discussed with girlfriends who are experiencing problems. Shame, fear and weakness is often attached to ideas of distorted body perceptions. Similarly, Caroline found that when studying at UPENN it was "impossible to get women to talk about eating disorders." Yet through her series, as well as her performances, Caroline is encouraging a discussion, and breaking the taboo.

Caroline's own struggle with eating disorders started at the age of eleven. In 2004, she went into recovery and now, at age 28, she is fully recovered. Another area that Caroline advocates for is sexual abuse and violence awareness. Caroline was molested in high school for a year and a half, and date raped in University.

The fact that Caroline c - The Huffington Post


"Lady Gaga ignites ex-New Trier student's eating-disorder video on YouTube"

By Duaa Eldeib

For months, the video idled at about 800 views.

On Wednesday, Lady Gaga — yeah, that Lady Gaga — tweeted a link to Caroline Rothstein's video on her struggle with eating disorders, and in a matter of hours, the Wilmette native fielded emails and tweets from around the world.

"It's really quite amazing," said Rothstein, 29, a spoken-word poet and writer who attended New Trier High School and lives in New York.

Rothstein wrote the raw and personal poem, titled "Fat," more than six years ago. She performed it at national poetry slam contests, and it was posted to YouTube within the past year.

But nothing prepared her for Lady Gaga's words or the response that followed. The pop artist, who faced relentless commentary on her recent weight gain and revealed this week that she has long suffered from eating disorders, called Rothstein "a very inspiring woman."

"I'm just beyond humbled and utterly grateful that it is being shared in this way and it is sparking this dialogue and conversation," Rothstein said.

For 10 years, Rothstein battled with her body image. In middle school, she suffered through anorexia. In high school and college, bulimia was her poison.

"I used to daydream about eating dinner without wanting to kill myself," she says in the video. Her "disordered eating hell" included stomach ulcers, popped blood vessels and missing tooth enamel; dry skin and shedding hair; "playing Russian roulette with my esophagus."

She has been fully recovered for eight years and has been on a mission to share her story and raise awareness since. She has been dedicated, speaking on panels and working with nonprofits, but even her "Body Empowerment" series on YouTube rarely broke the 500-view mark.

"To watch what she's done with it, I'm just so proud of her," said her mother, Nancy Rothstein.

On Thursday afternoon, "Fat" had surpassed 20,000 views.

"Welcome to the revolution," Lady Gaga tweeted to her nearly 30 million followers before linking to Rothstein's video. - Chicago Tribune


"Women's History Month Poetry Slam: When Poems Speak Louder Than Words"

by Marielle Genovesi

“Write something in honor of a woman who inspires you,” was written at the top of an initially blank sheet of paper passed around the audience of the 10th Annual National Women’s History Month Poetry Slam last Wednesday. Many poetry slams occur throughout the year on campus, but this slam was special as it was hosted by Big O’ Slam female poets, Chelsea Defino and Maryanne Rojas. With the intention to honor women from this campus they placed the artwork of female students around the walls, exposing the talent withheld by these amazing woman artists. The slam was open to both male and female poets and the only guideline was that the poems slammed were to carry themes that empower women.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with poetry slams, anyone is allowed to stand before the audience and read or recite original poetry. They are scored by unbiased judges who are often pulled from the audience. Scores are given on a numeric scale that ranges from one to 100; all these scores are then summed up for a final score.

But the focus that night was not on the competition, but rather the words shared by each poet, as they expressed their experiences as women or about women who have touched their lives. Before the handful of poets who were to be competing that night, stepped on stage, faculty resident, Unoma Azuah of Lane University in Jackson, Tennessee who shared biographical poems that spoke of her life experiences. Following her performance, the featured poet, Caroline Rothstein took to the stage, being vibrant, confident and energetic the moment she stepped before the enthusiastic crowd.

Rothstein is a longtime advocate for eating disorder recovery and the promotion of positive body image worldwide. She specializes in spoken word poetry, theater, creative nonfiction, journalism and performance art. In 2008 she started “Body Empowerment,” a series on YouTube that encourages discussion about eating disorders, sharing her experience as a young woman who recovered from a decade long eating disorder.

Through the poetry she shared that evening, much was learned of her struggles not only as a woman, but as a human being. When she began to perform, almost instantly heads began to nod and audience members hummed in agreement, snapping their fingers high in the air (one snaps instead of clapping at poetry slams). Rothstein created a kind of magic; an emotional connection with those in the room with her poetry practically bursting from inside her. She brought laughter to the room, as well as tears and stories that not only were relatable, but frightening and true. In fact, after her first poem she stopped and asked lightheartedly, “Is it okay if we go deep? We’re just going to go deep and dark.”

The poets that followed Rothstein’s performance did not pale in comparison. Each performer shared poetry about the influences women have had in their lives. One poet, who announced herself as a newcomer to slam poetry, spoke ardently about the love and appreciation she has for her mother, that which she didn’t have as a young girl. A male poet followed who spoke of his wishes for his daughter, to love herself for who she is, instead of how she is told she should be. The winning poet, Matt Coonan, spoke about being marked and restricted by stereotypes and his resentment of this. The second place winner, Michael Bonnani, gave an energetic and enthusiastic performance of a poem contrasting the trials of love with outer space.

Poetry is made to connect with its listener or reader and slam poetry excites raw emotion. As an audience member you are practically immersed in the sounds of language and their meaning. All the poets who took to the stage honored women with their words and the truths they told, as Rothstein said, they “dug deep.”

For those of you who are interested in slam poetry you can get involved with SUNY Oneonta’s Big O’ Poetry Slam Team. Their meetings are held on Wednesdays from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in The Catskill room of Hunt Union. - The State Times


Discography

CDs:

"For You" (LP, 2011)

Chapbooks:

"After Leo Tolstoy," 2011
"This Book Wrote Itself," 2009
"What I Learned In College," 2006

Photos

Bio

Caroline Rothstein is a New York City-based writer, performer, and body empowerment advocate. She has performed spoken word poetry and facilitated workshops at colleges, schools, and performance venues around the United States for more than a decade. She hosts the YouTube series Body Empowerment sharing her own journey as a means to promote positive body image worldwide, and currently sits as President of the Board of Directors for the Mental Fitness, Inc., a national nonprofit organization committed to mental health and self-care. Her award-winning one-woman play faith about her experience with and recovery from an eating disorder debuted as part of the Culture Projects Women Center Stage 2012 Festival, and received Outstanding Overall Production of a Solo Show in the 2012 Planet Connections Theatre Festivity.

Caroline was a member of the 2010 Nuyorican Poets Cafe slam team, which placed second at the 2010 National Poetry Slam, and is a youth Mentor at Urban Word NYC. Her work has appeared in The Huffington Post, xoJane, The Jewish Daily Forward, Narratively, Big Think, Poetica Magazine, and elsewhere. A former member of and director for The Excelano Project, a nationally-acclaimed spoken word poetry organization at the University of Pennsylvania, she was the 2004 and 2006 UPenn Grand Slam Champion, a five-time College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational finalist, and helped coach the UPenn slam team to CUPSI championships in 2007 and 2009. Upon graduating in 2006, Caroline was honored for her work with an event in her name at the Kelly Writers House called The Caroline Rothstein Annual Oral Poetry Event. She has a B.A. in classical studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.S. from Columbia Universitys Graduate School of Journalism.

Band Members