Artist Statement:
I write poetry because it is a way for me to come to terms with the many obstacles that I face daily as black woman. Poetry is my therapy. I like to compose in pencil because there is something about the sound of the lead scraping across the page that soothes me. I can only begin a piece when I am arrested by a thought. It’s like, when I set down to write, I am banging this thought out of my head like a washer off kilter. As the thought rattles around in my head, I compose lines under my breath, and it’s only through my writing that I can get it out. I know a piece is done when I am no longer arrested by the thought. After writing, I read my words aloud to hear how they sound sequentially, to ensure that they are the remedy to the thought that has rendered me static. I know that I’m done with my piece when I am no longer arrested. When others hear my work, because it works better when it is read aloud, I would like for them to gain a better understanding as to what I go through daily. I want them to work through, just as I have, the things that have arrested me, and see how I have banged the thoughts out of my head and onto the paper, so that they can hear them bouncing around in theirs.
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