Breakpoint

Melding two worlds, tech to poetry, Betsy Aoki’s Breakpoint is an unveiling of girlhood in diaspora. Infusing myth into language, she breathes life to memory with math and code. She brings to light the rampant sexism that exists in male-dominated fields to this day. In response to this, it’s as though she injects feminism into a fierce telling of herself and survival.

Masterfully, she weaves her knowledge from her software and gaming background into the poetic image of her reality. She speaks in multiple languages wherein she is unapologetically her fullest self: daughter of diaspora, woman, and self. Some poems are indecipherable to the layperson, but this is by design, doubling as proof of Aoki’s prowess with algorithms and a glimpse of the alienation she feels in her fields as one of few, if not the only one. The penultimate poem, “Everything around us opens with time,” is foreboding. True equality is on the horizon. Having crafted an ode to herself and all those like her, Aoki is a multifaceted talent, cementing women as a force to be reckoned with.