Behind the Artist: Elizabeth Walker-Ziegler

by Jordan Sandvig

If you’ve been keeping up with Rainbow Rumpus and Riot lately, you know that this year we’ve been involved with No Name Calling Week. Recently, No Name Calling Week held a Creative Expression Contest; the organization hosts one every year. In May, we introduced this contest, and last month we brought you two of our favorite pieces. This month, we caught up with the poet of another of our favorite pieces from that competition; her name is Elizabeth Walker-Ziegler.

Elizabeth is a ten-year-old from Los Angeles, California, who lives with her two dads, William and Kelly, and her five-year-old brother James (who she calls “Poodle”). Elizabeth enjoys playing handball with her friends at school and really loves gymnastics. She’s excited about her gymnastics class performing a rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” at an upcoming competition. Elizabeth’s favorite show is Glee because she feels she can really bond with the characters: “… you can relate to them, [and] you can put them in your shoes.”

Elizabeth went to an event with her dad in May where they got to meet the entire cast of Glee. At “An Evening with Glee,” her dad mentioned how much he liked the show and being able to see a character on TV with two dads. Well Lea Michelle (who plays Rachel Berry on the show, a high-school student with two dads) remembered Elizabeth and her dad, and when Elizabeth went to meet Lea the TV star, Lea “pulled [Elizabeth] over for a conversation and talked about what it was like to have two dads.” It was a very memorable night for Elizabeth and her dad.

Outside of remaking “Thriller” and hanging with TV stars, Elizabeth likes to write poetry. Elizabeth’s award-winning, No Name-Calling Week poem is about an event that happened to her in second grade when a kid in her class used the word “gay” in a mean way, causing Elizabeth to leave the room in tears. Elizabeth says she’s “kind of over it” now, but the incident still remains fresh for readers who were moved by her depiction, her use of rhyme, and the emotions she conveys in her poem.

Perhaps writing the poem helped her deal with the emotions of the incident at school, perhaps she got “over it” with the love and support of her dads. However she did it, she left us with a great piece of art. For letting us share it, thank you, Elizabeth.

“Just the Blues”

By Elizabeth Walker-Ziegler

When you’re kicking your shoelace
All down in the dumps
And your shoes are all torn
And you feel like a stump

Well I guess I feel the same
Let me tell you my story
It isn’t all that different
But it’s mandatory

So one day in school
Having a word-study lesson
Finding words that rhyme with “ay”
Someone made an odd impression

‘Cause of my dads, someone said gay
I burst into tears
Ran out the door
Laughter in my ears

I ran to the bathroom
As fast as I could
Kept crying my heart out
I felt like a piece of wet wood

I felt better after 2 days
Angry at those guys
Made up and felt better
No more tears in my eyes

That’s the story
That’s the blues
Enjoy it as well
Full of cries and boo-hoos

Elizabeth received her award for this poem at a special ceremony in May.