Your poetry is extremely thoughtful and moving. One line that stuck out to me was from "The Flood," Clean: "I feel like [...] I have to brace myself for my own existence." You featured that line on your Instagram page. You do a great job of using social media as an artistic expression. How did you first get started with that approach?
I am truly very millennial and have been on the Internet since around age 7 or 8. I was always a kid that kept to myself and wanted to read about/experience a vast number of things at an early age. Joining online communities after doing my CD-ROM math games made me very Internet savvy and helped me to curate the many stages of myself in a universe larger than my hood. I feel that for me, it’s the most accessible option, as I may not have money for a graphic designer to make marketing goods for me and because my life has been very transient, nor might I have the social capital or guaranteed IRL space to exhibit my work where it will be received.
In addition to writing poetry, you've also worked in a number of different mediums, including performance art and art installations. How do you know which medium would be best for each project?
I think I approach my ideas with whatever tools I can access at that moment. I feel like a writer that hardly writes. I want to be writing poetry all the time but sometimes I have no words and it just feels less taxing to document what show I’m bingewatching today & my Boomerangs from Instagram in video form or to do a striptease to an original mix with my visual art as background or to take a selfie in front of the personal essay I started but can’t finish. Instead of pushing myself to do things my brain may not be able to do at the moment, I’m focused on meeting myself where I’m at. I also am just really down to try new things & get bored hella easily.
What can people expect from your reading?
Making white people uncomfortable and a lot of oversharing about my emotional state. Me getting words stuck on my teeth because of my overbite. Not knowing how to handle compliments. Hopefully serving all the looks. & zines!