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Madeline Lessing is a poet, songwriter, and DIY scene-baby based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Tag: community
Community Through Art: Interview with Write About Now Founder, Amir Safi | Written Wednesday
Amir Safi is from College Station and is based out of Houston, Texas. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University. He is the co-founder of Mic Check 501(c)3, the Texas Grand Slam Poetry Festival and the founder of Write About Now. He is a 2017 Houston Poet Laureate Finalist, a 2013 and 2015 Southern Fried Poetry Slam Champion, a 2013 National Slam Poetry semi-finalist and his work has been featured by A plus, BuzzFeed, Upworthy, The Huffington Post, Whataburger, Total Frat Move and more. Most recently, his poetry has been published by Pittsburgh Poetry Review and Tincture Journal, and he has received recognitions as a semi-finalist for the Crab Creek Review 2017 Poetry Prize as well as a finalist for the North American Review’s 2018 James Hearst Poetry Prize.
We had the opportunity to meet and connect with Amir. Read more to see what we learned about him!
You co-founded Mic Check and the Texas Grand Slam Poetry Festival, then founded Write About Now. What made you decide to become involved in the organizational/curating aspect of poetry?
Great question. Mic Check existed long before me; however, Christopher Call and I are the ones who made the organization a non-profit. Basically, I didn’t like slam at first. My thought was that Oh, you think your writing is better because you say your poetry louder? But then, I went back one week and the poetry night barely had anyone there. It was then that I decided to become involved because an outlet of expression was really needed in Bryan/College Station and it was really important that it did not disappear. It was idealistic forming a nonprofit. We thought we’re a nonprofit now so people are just going to give us money! We were wrong, so I created Texas Grand Slam as a fundraiser for Mic Check.
Texas Grand Slam was also created because slam communities often spend resources they don’t have to travel and compete at slams across the nation. With Texas Grand Slam, we could cut down the expenses for our members, attract incredible poets to our community and raise some funding for our organization in the process.
By the time I moved to Houston, I was completely burnt out on community organizing and over it. But then, my friend introduced me to a venue named AvantGarden and I took it as a sign that I had no escape.
What are important factors that anyone interested in starting their own arts non-profit needs to consider?
I would ask certain questions such as:
What’s your mission?
Is anyone else doing this work?
Is there a gap that this organization will fill?
Can you just collaborate with someone and accomplish the same task?
Have you done your research and compared starting a nonprofit with other ventures?
If you’re happy with your answers, you’re good to go!
You use seemingly mundane things such as monkey bars, pepsi commercials, and Whataburger as devices to convey powerful narratives about identity through your poetry. How have you developed your writing style over the years?
Oh man, okay. Time for self reflection here. So, what I end up doing in those works specifically is answering a question through a series of events or images.
For example: Amir, why don’t you just let things go? Or Why was the Pepsi commercial problematic? Or Why do you love Whataburger so much? And then I just try to answer that question as many different ways as possible, which helps me better communicate my message to the viewer/reader.
Tell us about the start of Write About Now. What inspired you about the idea? What major obstacles did you face in developing it into reality? What is your proudest accomplishment from the outcome of WAN?
As I mentioned before, I moved to Houston with no intention of organizing ever again. I was burnt out. When I first moved to Houston, a friend of mine opened his home to me and invited me to stay with him for two months or until I figured the city out and was comfortable picking out a place to stay. Well, that friend lived with his fiancee and they were getting married at a venue named AvantGarden. He told me that the venue would be great for poetry and that I should talk to the owner. I politely declined and told him I was over organizing. One day he convinces me to go to AvantGarden to scope out the venue before the wedding. He introduces me to the owner, Mariana, and tells her that I have a lot of experience running poetry events and that I should do poetry at AvantGarden.
Mariana told me about how much she loved poetry. She gave me the recap of the history of poetry at her venue. She gave me the day, time, and space I wanted. And the venue’s name was AvantGarden. It was a sign and we’re about to celebrate our 4-year Wanniversary at AvantGarden.
Write About Now is different than my previous projects in that I’m older now and I’m in one of the largest cities in the country, which gives me access to more resources. My goal is to help your voices reach as many ears as possible. So I look at Write About Now as a platform that helps amplify the individual’s voice. The problem with a physical space is that you’re limited to those parameters. We’re meeting every week and bringing in featured poets. Why not film them? Boom! Now, we’re online, and the internet is another platform. Another source to help amplify the poet’s voice. We’re already filming the poets and we have audio. Why not use the audio to make a podcast? Boom! We created a podcast channel. These poems are on the internet already. Why not link up with media influencers like Upworthy, We are mitu, AFROPUNK, George Takei. Boom! Now, we have working relationships with these artists.
I’m really proud of it existing for four years and the community and quality of individuals and poets this organization has attracted. Honestly, my favorite part is building this wonderful community we have.
What is it like acquiring permission to record an event? Do artists ask for compensation?
It’s important to always receive the consent of the artist before you post their videos. We typically have general media release forms that we have artists sign. I can’t recall anyone ever asking us to be compensated. Most people appreciate having high quality video of their work published.
How is it like with competing organizations like Button Poetry and Def Jam?
The way I look at it is that other poetry channels aren’t my competition. In fact, the greater appeal they have the more opportunity it creates for Write About Now and vice versa. All of us are paving a larger runway that allows for these poems to take flight and that’s, really, what’s important.
Name some of your favorite poets that you featured/collaborated with.
I love working with Christopher Diaz, Ebony Stewart, Danny Strack, Mason Granger and Dena Igusti.
What experiences have you found to be the most frustrating and/or challenging when organizing your own events and programs? Which have you found to be the most rewarding?
As a community organizer, you have to always be prepared and on your game because anything that can go wrong will go run. Some difficulties I’ve had are trying to do high level production of shows and media while having limited resources; navigating how to keep a live outdoor show running with weather variability; collaborating with different artists and personalities and expectations, working with different media platforms, etc. The most rewarding thing about organizing is watching people grow, become better writers, and gain confidence on stage.
From your own perspective what are the most crucial elements to consider when building an organization from the ground up?
The most important thing is consistency. People need to know that you’re going to meet at a certain place at a certain time at a certain frequency. But also, what’s your mission? Are you actions consistent with reaching its goal? Are you consistent in the way you make decisions and govern?
What connections/type of connections have you found to be the most valuable and beneficial to your organizing?
connect connect connect connect connect connect connect connect connect connect connect connect connect connect connect connect connect connect connect connect
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As Hafiz says, no one knows in which shell the priceless pearl lies. You can never have too many friends or too many people in your corner.
You recently started adding captions to the poetry videos you post on YouTube. Tell us why you did/do this. Are there other ways like this that poets can help when performing/submitting poems?
A lot of times people ask what they can do to help Write About Now and I don’t often have a lot of tasks other than volunteering at the physical show. But, recently, we’ve opened up community contributions on YouTube to allow people to help add captions to videos on our channel. Captioning poems helps make videos more accessible for people with disabilities and people who may not be fluent in English. It also optimizes the video’s shareability. A lot of time people want to watch vids in an area where there cannot be volume. It’s super easy to add captions. All it takes is watching a small tutorial video and then trying it out.
Be sure to check out Amir Safi on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and watch Amir and other phenomenal poets on Write About Now!
Submission Saturday | “Ode to the Medusa in Me” by Stephanie Dinsae
Ode to the Medusa in Me
At the age of 3 or 4
I remember being a free child
In Daycare
I would run wild
Whenever I could
Scraping my
Bare knees against brick walls
Had there been no confine
My knees would have been fine
You would think the sting of rubbing
Alcohol would keep me bound
But… it didn’t
Like me, my hair would also run wild
Yearn to be free
Stretch to the sky to claim that agency
Imagine a wild child’s surprise each time I
Was called to come be still
So my mom could tame my hair
She tried so hard to tame it
Only successful temporarily
Because of my hair’s wild nature
I earned myself the nickname
Medusa
In ode to her intense, passionate locs
So many years have passed and for fun
My mom will still call me Medusa sometimes
Confession: I still like to run
Free and my hair as well
Little did I know how lucky
I would be to have been
Named after her as a child
What I’ve realized since then is that
Medusa is synonymous to Black woman
And…Black woman is synonymous to monster
Monster — because they can’t tame her
When she shoots them daggers as gazes
Naturally they can’t take it
Call her gaze an attitude
Call a hurt ego being turned to stone
They tell Medusa she has too much
Backbone
They figure they’ll call her terrifying
Since her confidence
Is jarring
Of course they don’t expect a
Black woman, a Medusa,
Like me
To own her pride
They want Medusa, to
Shrivel up and die
Shrink up and make them
Feel better about themselves
Give them all the space and
Leave none for us
Which is evidently why
They reduced my namesake
To a Gorgon
A bitter, vicious thing
A monster easily defined
Why are they unaware
I, like Medusa, am not someone to be confined
Why else does my hair, like hers
Not fit into neat, straight lines
Medusa knows best that her hair
Has a mind of its own
Defiant and wanting to be left alone
Away from their harm, their danger
Her body or her hair or her mind
Is no stranger
To the slander they bring
So I, like Medusa, use my gaze, my lack of
Response to protect me
My hair is wild, I am wild
And because they fail to tame me
In my entirety, her entirety, in our entirety
They tear down pieces of our appearance
Collage them together to create the narrative they want
For us
And we shock them with our brilliance
Since that narrative does not come from us
The glory of our story
Reduces their narrative to a mere phrase
They’re bound to feel their lies coil around them like snakes
Wrapped around their body
Binding them to their disgrace
There’s no wonder they feared Medusa’s hissing mane
No wonder why it was subject to be tamed
My hair is wild, I am wild
Medusa, Black woman, I, am not someone to be confined
They knew their narrative would be dismantled
It was only a matter of time
See, they attempted to
Handcuff us to the labels of Scary, Imposter, Bitter, Vicious
And in return, we only bounce back more ambitious
So if the definition is “A Black woman becoming stronger”
By all means, call ME, Medusa… a monster
– Stephanie Dinsae
“Trump Nation” by Victoria Buffalino
betrayal:
sneaky snake
slippery, slow
you feel comfort as
he wraps his arms
around your throat
“Let me save you,”
he coos as he
strangles you
you’ll never
see it coming
(at least, it’ll feel sudden
when you’ve spend the
whole relationship with
your eyes squeezed shut)
one day
he just
strikes
(about:) This is how I feel as I watch our rights slip away, one by one by one. If you’re still
defending him, just remember, eventually you’re next. Seriously, you’ll be next, and if you don’t stand up now, who will be left to stand up for you?
Image and Poem by Victoria Buffalino (IG: schoolyardhero)
